My FIRST Time Writing an Essay

??-?-2010
Our LA teacher told us that we had to do an essay on either the setting or the characterization. When I first heard essay, many thoughts went through my mind. Is it going to be hard? How would I write it? Is this homework? Will I get stuck? I just had tons of questions I did not know the answers of. Fortunately, our LA teacher told us that he would guide us along so that we could learn slowly. He said that we would be doing the essay in class during curriculum time and he would teach us how to do it. I felt relieved.

2-2-2010
Our LA teacher taught us how to write a simple five paragraph expository essay. It was made up of five paragraphs, as the term implies, with three different parts. Our LA teacher used a burger as an anology for the structure of our essay. The essay would be made up of the top layer of bun (introduction), vegetables(first para of body), patty(second para of body), cheese(or vegetables again I forgot)(third para of body) and the bottom layer of the bun(the conclusion). The first paragraph would be the introduction.

Introduction
The top layer of the bun. I knew what was an introduction, but I did not know how to write it. Fortunately, our LA teacher went through with us a sample essay The Three Africas and pointed out the different parts of an introduction. The introduction consisted of setting the context, "grabbers" to capture the reader's attention, the thesis and an essay map. I have heard of "grabbers" before. I initially thought that we could ask rhetorical questions to capture the attention. However, I found out that I was wrong when our LA teahcer returned the essay for us to do another draft on 10-2-2010 and he said to not ask questions in expository essays. In addition, when I heard the word "thesis", I did not fully understand the meaning. Someone else in the class raised his hand and asked our LA teacher. He explained that it was to tell the reader what the rest of the story would be about. Then, the essay map. Our LA teacher said it would tell the readers what the points of the body would be about. That brings me to my next point -- the body, which makes up the middle 3 paragraphs. (2nd, 3rd, 4th paragraphs)

Body
The vegetables, patty and cheese. Our LA teacher said that we have to PEE, of course not literarily, in every paragraph in the body. Our LA teacher explained that PEE simply stood for Point, Evaluate and Examples.

Conclusion
The bottom layer of the burger. Our LA teacher said that the conclusion was the restatement of the thsis and encourages further thought on the issue. Again, I thought encouraging further thought was similar to a "grabber" and again, I was wrong.

Now onwards
I learnt a lot through writing this essay. I look forward to learning more things from my LA teacher.