Essay Writing & Literary Devices

What this lesson covers

Essay Writing & Literary Devices is a 10-part Class 8 English lesson. Each part makes one point and then hands over to the next, so it can be read in a sitting or picked up again at the part you stopped on. It defines the idea in plain words before using it, works through an example step by step, breaks the topic into its parts and compares them, shows where it is used outside the textbook, names the mistakes that cost marks in an exam, ends with a recap of what to remember.

How it begins

An essay presents a position and defends it with evidence and reasoning. It is not a collection of everything you know. The thesis is your central claim, stated in one sentence. If you cannot write it, you are not ready to start. The test for every paragraph: does this advance the thesis? If a paragraph could be removed without weakening the case, it is decoration.

The 10 parts

1. An essay is a controlled argument
2. Types of essay
3. Paragraph structure
4. Making an argument stronger by conceding
5. Literary devices
6. Explaining an effect, not naming a device
7. Where this transfers
8. Where it usually goes wrong
9. What to remember
10. Watch one worked through