Organising your Ideas: Outlines
1. What aspect of last week’s topic “Young people and advertising” do you want to focus on? What support do you have?
2. Organise your ideas into an outline for an essay.
a. What is the main point you want to make? This will become your thesis statement.
b. What are the key supporting ideas for the thesis statement? These will become your topic sentences for the body paragraphs.
c. What supporting detail do you have for each body paragraph? Organise this into a logical structure for each paragraph. 
d. Do you have enough support for your thesis and supporting ideas? Do you need to add more?

Introductions and Conclusions
3. Write an introduction and a conclusion for an essay based on your outline. 

Note: The Outline, Introduction & Conclusion will be handed in and graded as part of the 10% tutorial component for this course. All tutorial work must be typed.

Introduction Hints:
- form a contract with the reader
- draw the reader in – ex. with an interesting quote, fact, question, overview etc.
- provide reader with reason to read essay
- usually move from general to specific, leading to thesis statement (essay main idea)
- make sure your position is clear - where do you stand on the topic?
- preview the body of the essay: how you will support your position?
- don’t go too much into Body details – repetition will result

Example: If the essay body detailed causes of alcohol abuse, the Intro could provide a reason to consider causes: eg. the extent of the problem briefly, or examples of alcohol related tragedies, or state how little we currently know about causes,  ie. providing a reason to read the following essay.  The causes would not be discussed in the Introduction – only briefly listed/previewed, as these would be covered in detail in the Body.
 
- any claims will need support in Body: “alcohol abuse is a real and growing problem” – back it up with data  

Conclusion Hints:
- wrap up the contract by briefly reviewing thesis & main supporting ideas
- may refer to broader issues, recommend action, answer question from intro. etc.
- keep it short, focused and powerful; they contain no new information – ex explaining solutions to a problem in Conclusion is unrealistic
- avoid finishing on a negative note: “What hope do we have to form a mature drinking culture?”

 
Expression Hints: maintain a rational, logical tone.
Things to avoid:
exaggeration the youth of today drinking with no regard for the consequences … if they can’t buy alcohol they steal it …
simplifying the issues the media are to blame…
bland generalisations & cliches As the world becomes more modernised … Keep the youth safe so they can live to be the next set of leaders … because they are the future generation … Everything has two sides
sounding like talkback radio:the people we trust to look after our country are to blame for weak political decisions … the government is doing nothing to help
colloquialisms & spoken forms …a lot of dramas…keep popping into one’s mind… it’s really hard to…

 
Example Introduction by Jarrrod Cordier
Youth alcohol use is a problem faced in many countries. New Zealand is no exception to this, with an estimated twenty percent of all 14-18 year olds’ deaths being categorised as alcohol related (Economist, 2004). This disproportionately high cost to human life also results in great economic cost, raising questions about the financial impact of underage drinking. It is estimated that such financial costs of youth alcohol addiction total hundreds of millions of dollars per annum in New Zealand. To accurately assess the severity of the youth alcohol problem in these terms, it is necessary to evaluate four key areas. These key areas consist of the cost of health care, the implementation of alcohol prevention policies, crime including damages to public and private property, and the total expenditure of the average New Zealand youth on alcohol. It is also necessary to examine the change in cost from previous years in order to gauge recent trends in alcohol related expenditure.
Example Body Outline
Body Paragraph 1.
Cost of alcohol related youth health care to NZ public.
1) Statistics from NZ Ministry of Health, Alcohol Public Research Unit.
2) Change in cost from previous years Body Paragraph 2.
Cost of implementing youth alcohol prevention schemes both private and publicly funded.
1) Public programmes. i.e. Alcohol Public Research Unit, ALAC, Ministry of Health etc. (Financial figures on public funding)
2) Private Programmes. i.e. Project K, F.A.N.Z, A.D.A.NZ. etc. (Financial figures on private funding)
3) Change in cost from previous years Body Paragraph 3.
The youth alcohol related cost of crime including damages to public and private property.
1) Statistics from ALAC, NZ Police and Ministry of Justice.
2) Change in cost from previous years Body Paragraph 4.
The total spent by youths on alcohol consumption. (Including money parents spend on purchasing youth alcohol)
1) Statistics on the total amount of alcohol consumed by youth -taken from ALAC and Project K youth surveys.
2) Change in cost from Previous years Example Conclusion
Youth alcohol addiction costs New Zealanders hundreds millions of dollars per year in healthcare, prevention, crime and consumption. However, it must be noted that all of these figures are substantially down from previous years, providing strong evidence that some these high costs paid by New Zealanders may be an investment for the future. References
Economist. (2004). Too much of a good thing. Economist, 370(8367), 15-15.