Unit 4: Reading to Write
This unit pulls together everything you learned in the previous units. In this unit, you will bring together sentence agreement, facts, and word choice to write and share a short expository essay.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 4 hours.
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- identify elements in the basic structure of an essay; and
- produce a thesis statement and related support for a basic cohesive and coherent opinion essay.
4.1: Essay Basics
Unit 4 combines the lessons in units 1, 2, and 3. In this unit, you'll read short articles and see how using specific vocabulary plays a role in sharing our opinions and distinguishing them from facts. Then, you'll write an opinion essay and share it in the class discussion forum.
These materials include information about writing basic essays in English. After you read the explanations and watch the videos to learn about opinion paragraphs, you will be able to test your understanding by completing practice activities.
While most essays basically have the same structure, they can be different according to the writer's purpose. Many of your future academic and workplace writing assignments will be expository – explaining your ideas or the significance of a concept or action.
4.2: Essay Basics – Let's Practice
These activities allow you to find out how well you understand the basic parts of an essay, thesis statement, and different organizational patterns. If you have a difficult time recognizing these elements, you may return to review the information in the Let's Study section and then try these practice activities again.
Now that we have a better understanding of the relationships between essay structure, purpose, organization, and word choice, let's put it all together in practice.
4.3: Essay Basics – Let's Apply
Now that you know about each element of an essay as well as important considerations for expository essays, let's see if we can use this knowledge to write an expository essay.
So, how should you get started? In ESL001 and ESL002, you learned about the writing process, so approaching your writing task is all about following those steps. Let's review together with a sample expository essay on the topic of "fads".
For this discussion, share the expository essay you have written on one of the three options listed on the previous page. Remember to share your final draft (after revision and editing).
Reply to your classmates with feedback or suggestions about the purpose and structure of their essay, their word choice, use of transitions, and sentence agreement.
4.4: Putting It All Together
You have learned about some writing strategies that can help you develop clear essays in English. This section will help you review what you have learned in Unit 4.
Watch these videos, which give a basic overview of expository writing, essay structure, and writing strategies you learned about in this unit.
Unit 4 Assessment
- Receive a grade
Take this assessment to see how well you understood this unit.
- This assessment does not count towards your grade. It is just for practice!
- You will see the correct answers when you submit your answers. Use this to help you study for the final exam!
- You can take this assessment as many times as you want, whenever you want.