ORGANIZATION OF THE ESSAY AND ITS STRUCTURE
K. Aitkulova, Senior Lecturer, Master U. Tursynbekova, Lecturer, Master Kazakh National Pedagogical Abai University (Kazakhstan, Almaty)
DOLW.24412/2500-1000-2021-9-2-9-12
Abstract. The rapid development of information technology and the daily use of the Internet have influenced the growth of written communication. Teaching the correct writing of academic essays and articles has become part offormal formal instruction. Today, the essay is offered as an assignment quite often. High school students are taught to structure their essays to improve their writing skills. In both middle and high school, essays are used to assess mastery and understanding of the material. Students are asked to analyze, explain, comment, or evaluate a research topic in the form of an academic essay letter. Teaching the correct writing of an essay is necessary so that students write better work, for a deeper understanding of the topic. Writing an essay is effective because it allows the author to learn how to clearly and competently formulate thoughts, structure information, use basic concepts, use basic concepts, illustrate experience with examples, and argue their conclusions. This article is devoted to the structural study of the question of the structure and structure of the essay.
Keywords: essay, academic writing, text, formal language, teaching writing, written communication
Written communication has become extremely important for interaction in the modern world with the instant technological development. Recently writing assessments and essays have become a vital part of a formal education. Secondary students are taught to structure their compositions in order to improve their writing skills. Both in secondary and tertiary education, essays are used to judge the mastery and comprehension of material. Students are asked to explain, comment on or assess a topic of study in the form of an essay.
What is an essay? Essay is a short piece of writing on a particular subject which presents the author's point of view. It is an organized set of ideas and reflections. This presentation of views must be done in a logical and factual manner with the use of the first person often discouraged. The word "essay" originated from French word "essai" which means "effort, sketch". It reflects the essence of this notion. It is a personal attempt to give a challenging sketch on certain issues. Every attempt is different and presents versatile ideas, but people must not be afraid of writing even knowing that it is too complicated to express themselves in a proper way.
Essay should be structured in various sections that make it easy for the readers to read and follow the author's thoughts clearly. To show your grasp of the ideas studied learners have to express them in their own words. Writing essays is not the easy task. Nevertheless, it is a good way to stimulate learning and critical thinking that makes writing a valuable part of any language course. It enables learners to display the skills and abilities which they possess and remaining an important method of assessment, helps to discriminate between students, to test their intellectual capabilities. Raimes points out "Writing helps students to learn. Firstly, it reinforces the grammatical structures, idioms, and vocabulary that teachers have been teaching their students. Secondly, when students write, they also have a chance to be adventurous with the language, to go beyond what they have just learned. Thirdly, when students write, they necessarily become very involved with the new language [14, p. 58].
Not only writing stages and techniques are important, but also there are problems with syntactic organization of a text and cohesion which are the basis for writing. Byrne describes that "Writing is learned through a pro-
cess of instruction - we have to master the written form of the language and to learn certain structures which are less used in speech, or perhaps not used at all. We also have to learn how to organize our ideas in such a way that they can be understood by a reader" [3, p. 98]
Learners should pay special attention to the structure and organization of the essay. It can take many forms. Understanding how the movement of thought is managed through an essay has a profound impact on its overall cogency and ability to impress. Teacher should teach students step by step how to express their thoughts on the paper, in which order, what linking words to use, what common mistakes to avoid. If you want to teach somebody to write different things, your task is to make the process of writing interesting. The problem is that very often people imagine essays just in form of boring, serious writings on scientific or educational topics. As the result, they have no desire to do such things or to learn how to do them. At first, learners can try writing without any plans, so that to be used to putting ideas into the written form. Show that essay topics can be various. Teach people creativity; show them how to use imagination. Slowly you should make this process more complex. Try to teach them to recognize topic sentences and to write their own, to conduct a substantial research on the topic, back up statements with samples, introduce how to organize paragraphs in a coherent way, what vocabulary to use; give them samples of the essays to study and then ask different questions related to them etc. When learners go through various examples of essays, these will serve as guides and help in writing the assigned task. Give them a hint to successful writing by introducing the structure of the essay which should be preserved. It is difficult for creative mind to be made to write within some definite framework; it is suppressed by structural dependence. Notwithstanding, it may be a very easy task if you are taught at the beginning of your learning process to use various writing techniques and structural models, to express yourself according to some general rules in writing essays. Structure is important in essay. It will help to follow dynamic interchange of au-
thor's arguments, supporting evidence and questions. The reader will be able to grasp the message encoded by the writer. The essay must have at least three paragraphs. Academic writing, however, usually comprises five paragraphs organized in a coherent way: introduction, body with mainly three paragraphs, and conclusion. Each paragraph should have a clear, singular focus. One of the commonest students' errors in writing essays is shifting topics within the same paragraph, rather than continuing to develop the idea they began with. If you want to start a new topic, begin a new paragraph instead. Paragraph usually consists of the topic sentence, the supporting sentences and the concluding one. A topic sentence is generally the first sentence of the paragraph. It is concise and emphatic. Topic sentence contains the main idea of the paragraph, thus orienting the reader to the purpose of this piece of writing. To attract attention they sometimes appear in the form of rhetorical questions. When you use topic sentences, your reader will find it easier to follow your thoughts and arguments. Supporting sentences illustrate the main idea with examples and explanations, give details, elaborate on causes and effects, comparison and contrasts, anticipate and respond to counterarguments. The concluding sentence finishes the paragraph by giving the final comment. The following exercise can help in teaching students to distinguish these types of sentences.
Find the topic, concluding and supporting sentences in the paragraph given:
A stitch in time saves nine. My mother, who likes sewing, used this simple saying to teach me the value of working on problems when they are still small. Originally, the saying referred to sewing - if you have a small hole in a shirt? You can repair it with one stitch. But if you wait, the hole will get larger, and it will take you nine stitches. This simple example reminds me to take care of small problems before they become big problems.
When the learners know how to form topic, supporting and concluding sentences, they are ready to start to write introduction. It is the first and very important paragraph in the essay. It is here that the writer will have to get the attention of the reader, introduce him to
the theme and focus his attention on the main argument by presenting a thesis statement. The introduction should always begin with something interesting. The writer may begin his essay by giving an anecdote, posing a question to his readers, presenting some interesting facts or by an exciting quotation relevant to the essay. The topic should be introduced clearly. You must avoid repeating the exact words of the topic, paraphrasing them will display your language skills. Concerning grammar the introduction will normally be in the present tense (e. g. people complain), or the present continuous (people are gradually becoming aware), or in the present perfect tense (people have pointed out). It is normally organized by giving first general ideas and leading to the more specific one, which is the thesis statement. The latter should indicate the point of discussion. For example, if you write an essay on hunger, you might say: World hunger has many causes and effects. This is a weak thesis statement for two major reasons. First, "world hunger" can't be discussed thoroughly in five or ten pages. Second, "many causes and effects" is vague. You should be able to identify specific causes and effects. Hunger persists in Africa because jobs are scarce and farming in the infertile soil is rarely profitable is a strong thesis. It narrows the subject to a more specific and manageable topic and it also identifies the specific causes for the existence of hunger. This thesis statement is a transitional "hook" which moves the reader to the first paragraph of the body of the essay.
The main body explains and supports the thesis statement, develops and illustrates the points you wish to make. It should be the easiest part to write. Using your outline and notes, try to rank ideas in order of importance. The first paragraph of the body should include the strongest argument as well as the second one. The third paragraph, however, usually presents the weakest argument. The main body is characterized by different evidences and examples, it is necessary to discuss positive and negative aspects. The writer can display power of analysis, personal understanding of complex topics. Do not feel you have to put in everything you have learned. Relevance and independence of
thought are of importance. Take all the time you can to fully develop your ideas. If you stop writing too soon, it may be because you have not explained yourself completely, or backed up your assertions with examples. Do not simply state that something is true, prove it. There may be several ideas which must be supported. Not every supporting point will have details, though, some will have several details. Those make your essay stand out. You should include, however, only information that pertains to your topic. Qualify your answers for accuracy. If you cannot remember an exact date, approximate-"late eighteenth century" is better than 1988 if 1988 is incorrect. When you feel that you expressed everything you wanted, your thoughts are backed up by evidences and examples, you may proceed with concluding part of your essay.
The concluding paragraph must summarize the entire essay and reiterate the thesis statement presented in the introduction. It must be remembered that new facts and data cannot be presented here. A strong concluding statement at the end helps to convince the reader. You can effectively reinforce the points, made in the body but remember to reword them and keep the conclusion fresh. It's not enough just to restate your main ideas - if you only did that and then ended your essay, this part would be flat and boring. You should not use phrases such as "I wrote about" or "This essay was about". Drawing a conclusion often involves summarizing of the main points already made. A common mistake is to write the end that does not follow logically from what has been written before. This is sometimes called a 'non-sequitur'. If you have the time, end with something more interesting giving a thought-provoking quotation, talking about consequences or implications, stating what action needs to be done. A speculative conclusion refers to a future possibility or prediction, such as "perhaps years from now". If you write about a problem, try to offer a solution. If you have a fitting quotation, use it to finish your essay. The person quoted does not have to be famous, but the quote should help you to make your point. Although be aware that you cannot overcome a weak essay with a clever conclusion. Your conclusion is
the final impression left with your reader. Author need to say something that will continue to simmer in the readers' minds long after they have put down this essay.
Writing is a crucial and fundamental skill that must not be left out of the language learning process. It tends to be both the most demanding and rewarding part of any course of study. Critical thinking is crucial for effective writing. It is essential to understand texts and to produce an essay that addresses complex topics.
A logical presentation of facts and data is essential for the reader to understand the topic well. The essay should include introduction, main body and conclusion. Each paragraph must be focused on separate issue. Linking
es, so that people can follow writer's ideas easily. They act as bridges between paragraphs. All presented arguments must be backed by evidences. Through the construction of detailed, reasoned and balanced arguments students consolidate what you have learned and apply key principles and theories in such a way that is both interesting to them and informative to the reader. Learners must acknowledge the quotations clearly. Language must be simple and smooth flowing and care must be taken to avoid all kinds of grammatical, spelling, stylistic errors.
Teaching writing essays is essential to help write better essays, to delve into a topic more deeply. Focusing on writing becomes a way of focusing on the methods, practices, social and psychological processes of learning.
words are used to connect ideas and sentenc-
References
1. Raimes Ann. Techniques in Teaching Writing. - Oxford University Press, 1983.
2. Byrne Don. Teaching Writing Skills. - Longman Group UK Limited, 1988.
3. Zoellner R. Talkwrite: A Behavioral Pedagogy for Composition. - College English, 1968.
ОРГАНИЗАЦИЯ ЭССЕ И ЕГО СТРУКТУРА
К. Айткулова, старший преподаватель, магистр У. Турсынбекова, преподаватель, магистр
Казахский национальный педагогический университет имени Абая (Казахстан, г. Алматы)
Аннотация. Быстрое развитие информационных технологий и повседневного использования сети Интернет повлияли на рост письменного общения. Обучения правильного написания академического эссе и статей стало частью официального формального обучения. Сегодня эссе предлагается в качестве задания достаточно часто. Учащимся средней школы учат структурировать свои эссе, чтобы улучшить свои письменные навыки. Как в средней, так и в старшей школе эссе используются для оценки усвоения и понимания материала. Учеников просят проанализировать, объяснить, прокомментировать или оценить тему исследования в форме академического письма -эссе. Обучение правильному написанию эссе необходимо для того, чтобы ученики писали более качественные работы, для более глубокого вникания в тему. Написание эссе эффективно, поскольку это позволяет автору научиться четко и грамотно формулировать мысли, структурировать информацию, использовать основные понятия, использовать основные понятия, иллюстрировать опыт примерами, аргументировать свои выводы. Данная статья посвящена структурному изучению вопроса о структуре и структуре эссе.
Ключевые слова: эссе, академическое письмо, текст, формальный язык, обучение письму, письменная коммуникация.