Traditional Essay Style

Basic Parts of a Traditional Essay

 Traditional essays in English are done in 5 paragraphs.  (about 300 words is common)

The basic parts are quite simple in structure.

  You may have learned about them before:

Introduction, Body, Conclusion.  Here are the  characteristics of these parts:

INTRODUCTION 

RECOMMENDED -  hook

REQUIRED-  several sentences which give general facts about the topic and its effects in the world.

OPTIONAL-  statistics, mentioning of experts and famous books written on the subject

REQUIRED-  thesis or main idea statement

OPTIONAL -  outline or method statement

BODY

-  three paragraphs with clearly organized information on the topic

CONCLUSION

REQUIRED - re-statement of the main idea in different words

REQUIRED-  re-statement of most important points in different words

RECOMMENDED- consequences of the information or the situation to people and the world

OPTIONAL- suggestions to people about the information

OPTIONAL -  clincher  (generally follows the same structure as hooks)

For examples online, see AEPUCE essay examples

1) The topics of traditional essay style are simple human things which people in most cultures can understand and discuss, eg.  family relationships, studying, work, television, computers, transportation, sports, travel, money, etc. 

2)  Traditional essay style must be written with traditional paragraphs of at least five sentences each.  However, one or two short paragraphs will be tolerated if they have a clear and strong point, or if they are a connecting sentence between two larger paragraphs.

3)  Topic sentences are expected in each paragraph.   

4)  The introduction and conclusion should follow traditional format. 

5)  If you change the essay to a report essay, such as if you only compare the knowledge from books to the knowledge from experience, the TOEFL graders will give a penalty.  However, traditional essay prose itself does allow report topics and report style.  It just happens that the TOEFL people have chosen only argumentative questions.

6)  The use of I, and personal examples and stories are very accepted and encouraged in this style.

7)  Questions are highly accepted, even for the introduction hook.

8)  Technical words from specific fields are forbidden and dangerous in this style, unless a clear explanation is given, and the specific field is named.

9)  High level words are accepted and encouraged in this style of writing, and can improve your score.

10) Quotations from experts or common people are accepted and encouraged in this style, but two is about the maximum number of quotations for a 300 word essay.  This should amount to no more than 10% of the essay.

11)  Techniques such as passive voice and adverbs are powerful as a way to increase scores with minimum effort.

12)  Outline statements are expected.  Thesis statements are optional.

13)  Transitions are highly expected in this style. (eg. first, second, third, therefore, consequently, in conclusion)

14)  Nominalization (words from one specific field - eg. id, superego, warren [bridge design], coulomb [electrical], cyclotron [machine used in physics research], grisaille [gray kind of painting -art]   is acceptable in this style, but is dangerous if overused, because the grader will think that the person is trying to impress with fancy words.  These words should be used and explained carefully in a traditional essay.

15)  Referential material - (referring to specific famous people, books, places, experiments, etc.)  This is encouraged, but should not be overused, and the references should generally be famous enough for all kinds of readers to know what you are talking about.

16)  Deep concepts are acceptable in this style, but are also very dangerous if overused.  You must not forget that the essence of this style is to talk about simple human things, not deep concepts.  Therefore, if you have one small reference to deep thinking in a traditional essay, that is probably enough.

17)  This style does not tolerate creative or strange organization or ingredients in  writings.  For example, if the question is about travelling alone or with a group, and you write a very creative 100 word poem, and then 200 words about how the poem applies to the adventures and joy of travelling alone, it could actually be very brilliant and good work for the university, but for the TOEFL exam, it might get you a lower score than if you simply wrote in the traditional paragraphs and basic points style.  

16)  As another aspect of this,  traditional essay style does not tolerate indirect arguments of things.  For example, if you have the TOEFL question "People sometimes should do things that they do not enjoy.  Do you agree or disagree?"  If you wrote a story about a young girl who became a great doctor because she had to take some horrible medicine when she was a young girl, and your whole essay was story, not explanation, it might allow you to get an acceptable score on TOEFL, but in an ESL class the teacher might become upset that you wrote a story instead of analysis or arguments.  However, in the real world, and to some extent in university classes, indirect arguments are sometimes accepted more strongly than analysis and arguments.