Chapter 4: From Thesis to Essay
First Storey
Example
In his essay “The Ultimate Communications App,” Charles Justice writes for an audience of first-year university students in Canada. He uses the contrast of “cooperation” and “conflict” (para. 11) in combination with the repetition of the word “common” (para. 12) in closing his argument.
Our first step is to take apart our first storey and describe the evidence for our forthcoming argument.
Underline each element of the storey to identify how many paragraphs you will need. Let’s assume that we need to dedicate a paragraph to each of our pieces of evidence.
Activity
Paragraph 1: quote and unpack the contrast of “cooperation” and “conflict” (para. 11)
Paragraph 2: quote and unpack the repetition of the word “common”
Now we have the first two paragraphs of our essay! In the next chapter, we will discuss the specifics of those paragraphs but for now, know that you need a paragraph for each of your two pieces of evidence.