essay support + reasoning

Let's talk about where student essays fall apart...

Organize ideas (create logical sequence)
Present evidence (choose and integrate sources)

Our writers don't quite have the mental model for how the pieces fit together:

Students start piling evidence onto the page as if volume = persuasion.
They assume the connection between evidence and claim is obvious.

That is, YET.

When we ask students to write body paragraphs, we're asking them to do three, complex things simultaneously:

Analyze connections (explain how evidence proves the point)

And, honestly? 
It's too much all at once.

So, before you know it, everything starts to spiral...

They hop from one point to the next with no thread, no momentum, no reason why this idea leads to that one.

Organize ideas
(create logical sequence)

Present evidence
(choose and integrate sources)

Students start piling evidence onto the page as if volume = persuasion.

They assume the connection between evidence and claim is obvious.