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Welcome to W. R. Farrington High School Library

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Types of Essays

What is expository writing?
A type of discourse that is used to give information or inform.

Find help writing an expository essay:

What is descriptive writing?
A type of discourse that is used to describe something--object, person, place, experience, emotion, situation, etc. This genre encourages the student’s ability to create a written account of a particular experience.

Find help writing a descriptive essay:

 

What is a narrative essay?
Writing a narrative essay is like telling a personal story. These essays are often anecdotal, experiential, and personal.

Find help writing a narrative essay:

What is an argumentative or persuasive essay?
These essays are meant to persuade the reader into the writer's standpoint of an issue. They inform about an idea but usually for one standpoint over another.

Writing: A Step By Step Guide

Outlines are road maps in writing.  Check out this informative presentation on how to write one.  You will need to elaborate on it, for this information is for essay writing.

What is a thesis?
It tells the reader (in a single sentence in your introduction) what to expect from your paper, your interpretation of the subject or your standpoint. The thesis is the main idea or central message of your essay. The body of the essay, gathers and organizes evidence that will persuade the reader of the logic of your interpretation.

Write a strong thesis:

When using sources in your papers, you can avoid plagiarism by knowing what must be documented.

Creating a bibliography never got easier!  Here are simple applications that you can use to create your bibliographies. 

For Citation Machine, you will need to open up a Word document and cut and paste your cited resources to make your bibliography.   

For BibMe, you can enter whatever resource info you have (example:  title, author) and it will do a database search.

For Citefast, you can create your bibliography and not even have to open up a word document. 

Can't find the citation format in Citation Machine?  Try Landmark College's APA Style  examples. It will give you APA citation examples for photographs, maps, etc.

 

Important!  All of our databases automatically provide you with citation information, but some will not give you the option to have it done in the APA format.  Just use the citation info and manually input the information in any of the tool templates.

Suggestion:   Making a bibliography should be an ongoing activity.  Enter the various resources and references you use as you use them so that it does not become an overwhelming task at the end.

Writing Resources

Visualize It!

Learn how to classify your ideas and communicate more effectively using. 

The Big Idea: Asking the Essential Question

An essential question makes you...

  • Think very, very hard
  • Search for information and evaluate data
  • Produce original ideas
  • NOT just memorize facts but do critical thinking

Types of essential questions often begins with:

  • Which one...?
  • Should...?
  • What if...?
  • How...?
  • Why...?

Examples (and non-examples) of essential questions.

   Topic: Alternative Energy Sources

Ask: Is nuclear energy a safe form of energy?

   Not: What is nuclear energy?

Ask: Should renewable energy sources replace fossil fuels?

   Not: What are examples of alternative energy sources?

Ask: Should solar energy systems be implemented on a widespread basis?

   Not: How is solar energy used?

Featured Videos, Podcasts and Articles

What happens when a dream you've held since childhood … doesn't come true?

Lisa Bu talks about what happened in her life when her dream didn't come true. Click on the image below to hear her story.

Author Spotlight: John Green

Some of us learn best in the classroom, and some of us ... well, we don't.  In this talk the author of Paper Towns and The Fault in Our Stars talks about his not-so-good grades in school and how he came to find a way of learning that worked for him.

Check out this video trailer put out by Siouxland Libraries, and check back after May 27th to see the whole episode!