Hi bearhare-ga,
Thanks for directing your question to me...I will try to tailor my
answer to the type of information you need to include in your essay
rather than generalizing for essays in general. For the record though,
we don't really keep a "file" persay, so next time if you want to
refer to previously asked questions it would be useful to the
researchers if you include the URL(s).
The section structure that I am providing is meant to answer the
question:
"What role have religion and the church of Quebec played in creating
both positive and negative relationships between Quebec and the rest
of Canada?"
INTRODUCTION
This section will simply state the subject matter along with the
intent of the essay in a few sentences - nothing too extensive here.
RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF THE QUEBECOIS
Here you will talk about all of the "historical" aspects of the French
migrants into Quebec. Their purpose, to populate Quebec and keep the
Catholic faith alive, is fundamental to your essay. The clarification
posted by umiat-ga to your original question (although a mouthful on
first read) is very accurate and states the type of information that
should be included here.
https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=50639
RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF THE ANGLOPHONES
Here is the place where you should talk about how the Anglophones
viewed religion and the importance they place on it. It is important
that you do NOT talk about the Francophones here...the whole point is
to keep the two sides of the story isolated but you should definitely
try to draw upon points that match up with or conflict with those
points provided in the prior section.
CANADIAN RELATIONS - FRANCOPHONES AND ANGLOPHONES
This is the real "meat" of the entire essay...your task here is to now
explicitly make comparison between the views, practices, and opinions
of the two groups that were stated in the previous two sections.
Repetition is a very important element of any essay...just try to
reword things a little. In making all of these comparisons you will
notice a pattern forming - similarities between the two groups
generally lead to positive relationships and differences tend to cause
conflict or create negative relationships. Try to keep these two
groups in seperate paragraphs....if it still looks muddled you can
even split this section into two subsections discussing each group. Be
sure to make all your points clear and concise (i.e. don't ramble on
unless its leading somewhere).
CONCLUSION
This is the place to wrap everything up - all the information here
will be taken from the previous sections (remember what I said about
repetition?). You should now LIST (don't worry about
explaining...you've already done that) all of the factors contributing
to positive relationships. Next, provide a LIST of the factors leading
to negative relationships. Don't get me wrong, you still need to write
it in full, coherant sentences, but just keep yourself from going off
on a tangent. Next, you will make a statement (known as your thesis)
which essentially explains the entire phenomena described in the
paper. This is perhaps the MOST sentence in the whole essay because it
demonstrates that you get the big picture...spend some time to make
this perfect. Time to wrap things up..a couple concluding sentences
(perhaps answering questions posed in the introduction) should go here
to bring the section and paper to a natural close.
END OF PAPER
NOTES:
You've noticed no doubt that I've chosen a certain angle to approach
the topic of this essay (namely finding contradictions between two
entities that are framed as independant). I find this technique works
well when you are asked "compare and contrast" type questions, which
this one actually is although its hidden :)
By breaking the two groups apart, you are able to analyze them more
critically without bringing in the other group to confuse things. You
should aim to create a parallel setup between the two groups in
Sections 2 and 3 above...in other words talk about elements in one
section that you can compare to a similar elements from the other
section. This will make your job much easier when making comparisons
explicitly in Section 4. What always helps me is to make a list of
elements on a scrap piece of paper and use it as a checklist as I move
through each section (in your case that of the Francophones and of the
Anglophones).
Writing essays is not so much about the content as it is the art
creating a structure that is easy for the reader to follow. That
really is the ultimate goal, right?
I wish you all the best of luck in writing your essay..if you have
problems understanding the above information please post a
clarification.
Cheers!
answerguru-ga |
