Mozleron said:


Agreed.

Mozleron said:
There is a structure for the basic three paragraph essay, which is what it looks like your professor is looking for and it can be found here.

http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/fwalters/essaybasic.html

In your case, it looks like your main theme is Childhood obesity. What are the three positions you are discussing?
They can be things such as:
Childhood obesity causes high blood pressure.
Childhood obesity causes diabetes.
Childhood obesity causes ugliness.
Childhood obesity causes lower lifetime income.
Childhood obesity causes higher medical costs.
Childhood obesity causes death.

Any of these positions have to then be supported by other people via cited sources.

As @Reb stated, you should first have your outline. It will look something like this:

I. Introduction
II. Topic 1
III. Topic 2
IV. Topic 3
V. Conclusion

In your introduction, you can start with your coming to America anecdote. After the anecdote, you should state your three positions. The final sentence should be a transitional sentence that leads into your first topic. This transitional sentence is often written after the fist Topical paragraph has been written.

The first sentence of each topic should be an impact sentence that clearly states the point of what you are about to discuss. It should clearly state your main topic for the paragraph, and should directly reflect what you stated in your introduction.

In the body of each paragraph, you should embed your supporting evidence, and properly cite your source. It is much easier to write your topic sentences first because they well direct what the rest of the paragraph is all about. You can write all three first, and if they don't make sense, it's easy to go back and rework it. Diving in with a bad topic sentence is a recipe for disaster. Having a strong one, however, will make the rest of it incredibly easy to write.

The final sentence of each paragraph should transition into the next paragraph. Like the transition from the intro, these are often written after the topic sentences are all written.

The conclusion should restate your three main points, and not introduce any new information. It can give a last little bit of your anecdotal story from the intro, but again, do not introduce any new information about your three main points. If you couldn't make your whole point in the three topic paragraphs, then you need to revisit them and fix that.

In this kind of writing, you want to keep it short, and concise. Even though there is a lot to say on a specific topic, don't let yourself get carried away with it. You want your three most important positions to shine, not get drowned out by all the extra fluff. You're trying to do a Navy SEALs type surgical strike, not a long drawn out Army engagement. Make each point, support it with facts, and get the hell out.

Edited by Mozleron 16-03-2012 07:00