The Mathematical Formula of Essays

My students thought I was crazy after I showed them this. Once you've labeled the parts of the essay with a letter, you can show them the structure of how an essay works by building the letters up and complicating the formula with what you want to accomplish. I've taught a variation of this formula twice. This is a better version of the formula, but I taught the other much earlier in the course. I suspect that teaching this formula after the first or second essay (rather than in the second term) would make more of an impact. Certainly, anyone who feels like one of their biggest comments is "tie backs!" or "organization?" or "thesis?" this formula will help them. Students who are a bit more advanced may either find it useful as a nice check, or there are ways to show them how to complicate the formula so that it suits their needs: add more evidence, more paragraphs, address oppositional evidence, etc.
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Formula for writing Essays

Here is a really simple formula for you to figure out the organization of your essays. Keep it on hand. God bless you on your journey if math is a problem for you.

Introduction – is very flexible. Introduce topic early; don't talk about history, or fiction, or abstract topics, even if they seem related. Write your intro last so that you don't ramble off topic. It is second-least important beside your conclusion.

The last sentence of your intro MUST be your thesis statement. [ I know I said there were exceptions. You're not there yet. I just didn't want to limit your creative geniuses. But now I am.]

TS= thesis statement. It is your argument. Every other thing you talk about must answer the question of how you are proving this hypothesis to be the case. If your essay is going in another direction, either re-write the thesis, or reign yourself in.

Body 1: Let's call it B1

Must include

To1 = topic sentence – what is this paragraph about?

ExA = explain the relevance of this topic. This is where summary goes. NOT the To1 > 2 sentences

Ev1 = first piece of evidence, introduced as a complete sentence.

ExB = To1 + Ev 1 =explain the evidence in relation to the topic

C1= To1 + TS = To conclude, combine your topic sentence and your thesis statement (rewrite it so it's not repetitive) to show how they're connected. If you got to this point and it doesn't work yet, something is missing in the middle.

B2:

To2

ExA

Ev2

ExB = To2 + Ev2

C2= To2+TS

B3:

To3

ExA

Ev3

ExB = To3+ Ev3

C3=To3+ TS

Conclusion = C1 + C2 + C3

What do you do once you've mastered this formula?

1. Add more evidence. This is the formula for an essay that requires you to use a text with a secondary source (you should have one piece of evidence from each, and you need to relate them to one another).

To4

ExA

Ev4

ExB = To4+ Ev4

ExC – optional, more like an introduction

Ev5

ExD = To4+ Ev5

C4= To4 + TS

2. Deal with opposing evidence (imagine as if you were debating your parents. If you pre-butt their argument with a rational reason for why their argument fails, yours will be/seem more complex)

To5 = Recognize Ev1X

ExA

Ev1X

ExB = To5 + Ev1X

ExC- But!

Ev2

ExD = Ev1X = wrong

ExE = Ev2 > Ev1 because of ExD

C5 = (To5 – Ev1X) + TS

You should be shooting for a paragraph with at least 7 sentences in it.

Your essay should have 6-8 paragraphs. (6 at the very least)

Other ways to play around with this formula:

1. What would you do if you had three texts?
2. Three texts and one source?
3. One text and three sources?
4. Three texts, one source that agrees with you and one that doesn't?