| Write an introduction that presents your exhibit, intellectual problem and central question: The introduction should give the reader a rich description of your exhibit, drawing on outside texts as necessary. The reader should understand why your exhibit requires analysis — is, what about your exhibit is ambiguous, unclear, contradictory or controversial — and the question that will motivate your analysis. If you choose to write a thesis-driven essay, your introduction will also include one of your main claims.
Moderate the conversation: Introduce each text as you would to a smart Columbia student unfamiliar with that text. To do this, you will need to define key terms and concepts from each text, and summarize the author’s main argument. The reader must understand why you have chosen these particular texts for your essay project, and how these texts are related to each other. Make an original argument: Your essay must make and support original claims, and demonstrate a clear stance. To do so, you must distinguish your own claims from those of your source texts, and provide the reader with a new, unique perspective on the issues raised in the conversation. Organize: The essay needs to be organized in a way that makes sense to the reader, and that presents your ideas clearly. To do this, you must make logical transitions between paragraphs, and link each paragraph back to your central question. Your paragraphs should be “coherent and cohesive.” Quote, paraphrase and summarize appropriately Write a strong conclusion: Your conclusion should collect the work of the essay, and point to the larger implications of your work. |
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| Preferred language style US English |
