1. We have reviewed, in stages, several of the aspects of essay writing in recent weeks. We looked at the brainstorming process, the way to choose three of the best topics to expand on, putting them in the order you want them in your essay so you have a strong ending, creating a thesis statement after that and then going on to begin your body paragraphs.
2. To put this into practice, today then, we began the process of writing an essay as a class to ensure that students know how to go through the process, from the beginning to the end. They had a handout to brainstorm their own ideas, and we collected them and put together the beginnings of an essay. We will finish it off tomorrow and students will be given a copy of our finished paper.

Here is a copy of the handout – essay-outline-updated.doc