LESSON PLAN: WRITING ESSAY

University
: State Islamic University Sunan Ampel Surabaya
Faculty/Dept : Faculty of Tarbiyah/Tadris English
Course
: Writing Essay
Semester
:2
Academic Year : 2015/2016
Time Allotment : 1 MEETING (1X100)
Description
:
The students are going to be introduced to three components of an essay in general and
then try to analyze those components through sample essays. The modelling of
analyzing the components will be developed by discussing the characteristics of each
component in groups.

I.

BASIC COMPETENCE
Writing each part of essay in general

II.

GOAL
Understanding model essay structure: Analysing an essay to identify the characteristics
of components of an essay (essay: Why It is a Cat, not a Dog)

III.

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES
Students are able to:
1. read an essay and comprehend the structure
2. identify three components of an essay in general
3. analyze the characteristics of each component of an essay in general

IV.

MEDIA
Whiteboard, Marker, Laptop, LCD, Students prompt

V.

MATERIAL
a. Vocabulary: essay, introductory paragraph, body paragraph,conclusion paragraph,
thesis statement, topic sentence, supporting detail, conclusion
b. Materials:
Sample of an essay entitled Why It is a Cat, not a Dog (see Appendix)
Figure of model essay structure
Explanation of essay structure through ppt

VI.

LANGUAGE FOCUS
Simple Present
Example:

Many people keen on raising animals as their pets.

Taking care jellyfish in our own aquarium needs a lots of money to spend.
We do not need much money to buy a fresh fish.
It does not need much water to grow.
The Use of Sequencing and Ordinal Number
Example:
Some ways need to be done to take care a mini cactus within a pot. First, we
need to water it once a week only. Dont give them much water, just make sure
the soil in the pot is wet enough. Second, they need to be dried over the sun at
least twice a week. Do it about one to two hours only. Next, we must dust the
body of the cactus regularly. It will rot fast if some water lie over its body. Last,
lie them in a place with appropriate room temperature, not too hot either too
cold. It will be live longer if you put it right. Those several tips can help you as a
beginner of mini cactus taker.
VII.
METODE :PPP (Presentation, Practice, Production) Performance Writing
Pre-teaching (3)
1. Brainstorming about what essay is.
Whilst-teaching (90)
1. Presentation (20)
a. The teacher explains about essay and three components of an essay in general.
b. The teacher extracts the required language forms.
c. The teacher shows an example of essay (modeling).
d. The students read the essay and classify the structure of the essay.
2. Practice (30)
a. The teacher shows a figure of the structure of the essay.
b. The students fill the figure based on the information from the sample essay.
c. The teacher and students discuss the components of an essay based on the result
of analysing the sample essay.
d. The teacher groups the students and shows other sample essay to practice.
e. The students work in groups by analyzing characteristics of each component of
essay in general.
f. The students conclude the result of their analysis.
3. Production (40)
a. After having a result of the analysis, the students make a report to be conveyed to
the all class.
b. The teacher and students discuss all the results reported by each group.
Post-teaching (7)
1. Reviewing the lesson about introduction an essay and the characteristics of its
components, the language feature and vocabulary.

2. Giving feedback for some mistakes done by the students during the teaching-learning
process
3. Concluding the lesson
VIII.

Assessment
Assessment is done by using performance assessment. The lecturer will give some
feedbacks for the students performance in term of their understanding about essay in general,
essays components and characteristics of essays components. It will not be in the form of grade
instead of feedback (comments), because this is developed for the first meeting of Writing Essay
subject which is introduced for the first time to the students. They will not write an essay yet in
this stage. However, the lecturer can still give some feedback for each student based on their
performance in analysing the sample essays given.
IX.

Task (See Appendix)

1. Read the following essay and identify the structure.
2. Identify the components of an essay in general.
3. Analyze the following essays and identify the characteristics of each essays component.

X.
Sources and References
Sample essays and figure are available on:
http://lklivingston.tripod.com/essay/sample.html
http://www.actstudent.org/writing/sample/three.html
http://barrettsbookshelf.com/files/u05.pdf
https://www.kibin.com/essay-writing-blog/analytical-essay-outline/
http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/writing/medicine/psychology/essay-structure/3.xml
http://bowvalleycollege.ca/Documents/Learning%20Resource%20Services/Library
%20Learning%20Commons/EResources/Study%20guides/writing
%20example_basic.pdf
Marshall, L. 1997. Essay Writing Materials. In a Learning Companion: Your Guide to
Learning Independently. Pearson Education Australia.

APPENDIX
The Essay Structure
The Introduction
An introduction orientates the reader to the general topic of your essay. It identifies the focus and
the purpose of the essay, and outlines what will be discussed. Remember, this is the first piece of
your writing that your marker sees, so a clearly outlined introduction is important. Below are some
quick pointers to assist you with this task.
Use a key opening sentence that summarises the question.
Elaborate on the topic by moving from general ideas, to specific academic arguments.
Provide an indication of the main points the essay will address (in their respective order).
Make a statement about the main theme or point of view of your essay.
Clear introductions are important for signalling to the reader the overall message that the
writer is trying to get across.
The Body
Each paragraph addresses one of the main points of the essay (in the order that you introduce
them).
Start each paragraph with a topic sentence which gives the key point.
Elaborate with supporting statements for one, two, three or more sentences (one idea in
each sentence).
Any terms open to interpretation must be defined.
Provide evidence or proof through your use of references.
The Conclusion
Re-state the main theme or key point of the essay (in different words than those used in the
introduction). Summarise the evidence by moving from specific statements to more general
arguments.
Do not cut and paste from the body of the essay.
Do not introduce new key points.
Do not go over your word limit.

Read
the

following essay and identify the structure.

Why It is a Cat, not a Dog
"A dog is man's best friend." That common saying may contain some truth, but dogs are
not the only animal friend whose companionship people enjoy. For many people, a cat is their
best friend. Despite what dog lovers may believe, cats make excellent housepets as they
are good companions, they are civilized members of the household, and they are easy to
care for.
In the first place, people enjoy the companionship of cats. Many cats are affectionate.
They will snuggle up and ask to be petted, or scratched under the chin. Who can resist a purring
cat? If they're not feeling affectionate, cats are generally quite playful. They love to chase balls
and feathers, or just about anything dangling from a string. They especially enjoy playing when
their owners are participating in the game. Contrary to popular opinion, cats can be trained. Using
rewards and punishments, just like with a dog, a cat can be trained to avoid unwanted behavior
or perform tricks. Cats will even fetch!
In the second place, cats are civilized members of the household. Unlike dogs, cats do
not bark or make other loud noises. Most cats don't even meow very often. They generally lead a
quiet existence. Cats also don't often have "accidents." Mother cats train their kittens to use the
litter box, and most cats will use it without fail from that time on. Even stray cats usually
understand the concept when shown the box and will use it regularly. Cats do have claws, and
owners must make provision for this. A tall scratching post in a favorite cat area of the house will
often keep the cat content to leave the furniture alone. As a last resort, of course, cats can be
declawed.
Lastly, one of the most attractive features of cats as housepets is their ease of care. Cats
do not have to be walked. They get plenty of exercise in the house as they play, and they do their
business in the litter box. Cleaning a litter box is a quick, painless procedure. Cats also take care
of their own grooming. Bathing a cat is almost never necessary because under ordinary
circumstances cats clean themselves. Cats are more particular about personal cleanliness than
people are. In addition, cats can be left home alone for a few hours without fear. Unlike some

pets, most cats will not destroy the furnishings when left alone. They are content to go about their
usual activities until their owners return.
Cats are low maintenance, civilized companions. People who have small living quarters
or less time for pet care should appreciate these characteristics of cats. However, many people
who have plenty of space and time still opt to have a cat because they love the cat personality. In
many ways, cats are the ideal housepet.

Identify the components of the essays structure.

Analyze the following essays and identify the characteristics of each essays component.
Intelligent Machines
Machines have taken a huge role in our day-to-day lives. They can either effect us in
a good way or in a bad way. Granted, machines have impacted many people in the
workplace but they help us finish the jobs. There are many ups and downs to the
development of machines.
Some people have become so dependent on machines they start to lose their
humanity. Machines can take away the personal aspect of life. For example, we lose
basic courtesy, respect, and tolerance for people due to using machines so much. Some
machines that could make that happen are; cellphones, computers, and video games.
When people purchase one of these machines they usually are on it and depend on it all
the time. Due to the lack of self-motivation through machines we could lose our
common courtesy.
In the workplace, machines have effected jobs dramatically. They can perform at
low-skill repetitive jobs and at high-speed precise jobs. They mostly are better than
humans because they are more precise within their work and they are less likely to
produce an error. Although machines do help the workplace, they can also harm it as
well. By the advancement of so many machines, an abundance of people are losing their
jobs due to them. Machines can have a positive and negative effect in the workplace.
Although machines have a good amount of drawbacks, they also have a positive
amount on us today. Due to the advancement of machines people are starting to push
themselves to a whole new level. People are becoming more educated and precise in the
workplace. Also, many people are starting to study machines and enter new,

unimagined possibilties into the world! Machines can change the world in a positive
way as well as a negative way.
In conclusion, machines effect the lives of everybody in our world today. Whether
they effect us in our home or on the job they continue to change peoples outlook on
trying new ideas. The development of machines has its ups and downs. For example,
they motivate people to work harder in order to compete with them. Although, they can
demolish our common courtesy, machines play a huge role in technology today and will
continue to shape the worlds future.