UNIT 1 — ILLUSTRATIVE ESSAY
Introduction

In this unit you are going to learn about the basic structure and parts of an essay. Lesson 1 focuses on the introduction, Lesson 2 explains the body of the essay, and Lesson 3 provides information about the conclusion.

Each unit in this course focuses on one particular type of essay. The focus of Unit 1 is an illustrative essay, which is a common essay style used in academic writing. The purpose of an illustrative essay is to explain an idea, a situation, or a concept using examples. The illustrative essay is also called an explanation or expository essay.

Unit Objectives

By the end of this unit you will be able to:

• Identify the parts of an essay
• Write strong and effective thesis statements
• Identify different types of introductory paragraphs
• Identify different supporting paragraph formats
• Identify different types of concluding paragraphs
• Write an illustrative essay