ESSAY ASSIGNMENT (11th - 12th grade)

IB Biology 11th – 12th Grade

The IB program encourages students to write essays in order to develop critical thinking and writing skills.

Before writting your essays you must have read the articles posted and marked with an (*). Pick the topic of your preference. The essay format that you will find in each of the articles is scientific writing. I am NOT expecting a scientific essay from you, yet.
This is an excercise of both reading and writing, it implicates that you need to read and think before you write your personal analysis of the chosen topic. Use what you have learned so far and look below for writing tips.

Next, I will give you some hints on how to accomplish this task:

Highlight or write down keywords and the main concepts (ideas) of the articles.
Go to your Elephant and Bird books, look for the keywords and search for the concepts (use also wikipedia and google to fully understand the article). If you still have trouble understanding, you are free to ask me directly and/or post your questions and comments in the blog. I will answer A.S.A.P.

With all the information gathered ask yourself:
1. What question am I going to answer in this essay?
2. How can I best answer this question?
3. What is the most important part of my answer?
4. How can I make an introductory sentence (or thesis statement) from the most important part of my answer?
5. What facts or ideas can I use to support my introductory sentence?
6. How can I make this essay interesting?
7. Do I need more facts on this topic?
8. Where can I find more facts on this topic?
9. Should I contact my teacher?

Good luck.

Parts of an Essay

Introduction
Supporting Paragraphs
Summary Paragraph

How to Write an Essay

Prewriting Essays
Writing Essays
Editing Essays
Publishing Essays

Kinds of Essays

Definition
Classification
Description
Compare and Contrast
Sequence
Choice
Explanation
Evaluation