i Dont know how to start an essay...
im doing an essay on how two different shows and how they construct gender stereotypes
and i don't know how to write up an essay...
what should my 1st paragraph explain?
what should it have in the whole essay??
Well start with the basics. First, pick 2 shows that interest you and that you feel do construct gender stereotypes.
Then think about how these shows further those stereotypes and what exactly you feel is important about that issue.
Then condense what you come up with down into one sentence. This is to be your thesis statement. The thesis statement should sum up what the whole essay will be about and should convey what conclusions you have come up with on the issue you are writing about.
Then write an outline for your essay. Elaborate on your thesis statement by thinking about all of the main ideas that are emcompassed within it. For the standard 5 paragraph essay you should try to come up with 3 different topics that function within your thesis to write about in your 3 body paragraphs. This is where you will want to write 3 mini thesis statements or topic sentences for your 3 body paragraphs. It is very important that these paragraphs stay on topic and stay within the main idea that your thesis statement sums up. Also the first paragraph should be your introduction and will include you thesis statement and all the main ideas of your body paragraphs.
For the 3 topic sentences find evidence to support their ideas. Find examples from the shows and analyze them. Elaborate on your topic sentences and you will have most of the text you need for the body paragraphs.
Post what you have after you have done that and we can go from there.
Nice job Tyler! Thanks! Here is another approach: Tell how gender stereotypes are perpetuated in the first show by writing a paragraph about it. Then, do the same for the 2nd show. Then, compare them AND contrast them, which means to tell which is worse, how they are alike, how they are different.
THEN go back and write the intro paragraph. After all that, write the conclusion. Get inspiration from essays here at essay forum. Take Tyler's advice, too! :)
If you are still stuck after reading Tyler and Kevin's advice (all of which is great, btw) just pick two shows, watch them, and write down everything you can think of about how they construct gender stereotypes. This will give you a first draft. It may well be a horrible, crappy first draft, but that doesn't matter. What does matter is that you will have started, and can post your draft here to get feedback on what you should cut, what you should expand on, how you should restructure your ideas, etc. Then you can come up with a second draft that is fairly decent, and post that to get more advice, which you can then use to come up with a third draft that will be actually quite good, and so on, until you have an essay of the quality you desire.