"The delights and frustrations of a teenager" - Expository Essays Help

Hello, i have been given the topic "The delights and frustrations of a teenager" and im suppose to write an expository essay on it. I have just started writing expository essays and i need help forming thesis statements and how its suppose to be written.

I have read this topic: http://www.essayforum.com/essays-term-papers-1/expository-pa per-267/

but still am confuse, i cant even start writing, i guess this is one of the frustrations teenagers have.

Anyone mind giving me some tips on how to start of the essay?

Also if there are any website which can help me with expository writing, please reply.

Thanks =)

Start by brainstorming to come up with ideas. What are some of the delights of being a teenager? What are some of the frustrations? Write down all of the things you can think of that would answer these questions. Then, look for patterns or connections between the items on your list. With a bit of effort, you will discover some common factor or factors that underlie at least some of the frustrations and delights. Then, you will be able to generate a thesis. With a thesis and key points, you will have something perilously close to an outline you can work from as you start writing the essay.

Good! Beginning to write before you are ready dooms your essay from the start. You shouldn't start writing until you have taken the steps Sean suggests. Once you have a draft, an outline, or even just a list of things you want to say, post it here for further assistance.

Ok so i have found some information.

Delights:
- Teens in general usually lives with their parents so they need not carry about many things and just leave it to their parents. ( Carefree )

- Teens also get allowance, so they need not work yet.

- Being a teenager also allows them to choose what they want to be in future

- Discovering/Developing new talents.

- Teens also have more time which they can spend with their friends

- Teens do not have any suppressions

Frustrations:
- Adults sterotyping teenagers

- Parents being over-protective

- Teens experience stress due to the different changes that they undergo every now and then ( Example : Family problems, parents getting divorced )

- Peer Pressure ( Maybe because they are not accepted in school so they try to change themselves )

- Teenagers being labeled, so they always have to think carefully before doing something.


Here are some points of the Delights and Frustrations of a teenager, but i cant seem to make a thesis statement out of it.

And also by the way, an Expository Essay is suppose to start with a thesis statement, am i right?

You need a thesis statement somewhere in your introduction. If you teacher wants it in the first sentence, do that. Otherwise, you can start with something stronger, to draw in your reader, and then place the thesis sentence at the end of the first paragraph.

You've got some good points there. It would be hard to match them point for point, so I would suggest a structure in which your thesis is that there are both delights and frustrations of being a teen, but you believe that the [frustrations/delights] outweigh the [frustrations/delights]. <== Whichever you think is true.

In your body paragraphs, cover all of the delights before covering the frustrations (or all of the frustrations before covering the delights). Be sure to provide supporting evidence such as examples. Use a transition sentence when switching from one to the other. Be sure that your arguments fit your thesis concerning whether being a teen is more frustrating or more delightful.

Finally, write a conclusion restating your thesis, summarizing the frustrations and delights, and offering some final thoughts. For example, if you believe that the frustrations outweigh the delights, you might say that you cannot wait until you are out of your teens.

You might also look for those common factors I mentioned. For instance, a lot of your "delights" center around the idea of the freedom from responsibilities teens enjoy. Many of your "frustrations" focus on the lack of control teens have over their own lives. Perhaps these two are related. That is, teenagers have a lot of freedom from responsibility, but because they are not primarily responsible for supporting themselves, they have to live more as others wish them to.

I really have problems starting the introduction but i know how to write the body and conclusion.

How is the introduction suppose to look like?

The core of your introduction should consist of a thesis statement and summary of your reasons for believing it. You can add some preamble before getting to that, if you need to define key terms or to supply background information that will help the reader follow your logic later on. Or, you can start directly in with your thesis and just expand on the summary a little bit to get your intro up to a full-sized paragraph. There are other formulas for writing introductions, but I find most of them tend to result in wordy intros that begin with generalizations that weaken rather than strengthen the essay. Someone will probably mention that you are supposed to start with an interesting hook for the reader, and if you can think of some way to do this, more power to you, but it isn't strictly necessary for this sort of assignment, unless your teacher has asked for it specifically.

Go ahead and write the body and conclusion. Then go back up, keeping in mind what you have already written, and write a paragraph that introduces your reader to what's to come.

Ok, ill try writing now. Once its done ill have it posted here. If i got any question ill post again. Thanks for the help =)

Hmm iv tried writing, but iv got a feeling iv done it all wrong. And i think i started the writing with a point that is too straight forward. Im not even sure if that is a thesis statement.

Im having a weird problem, i cant get the paragraphing right in the post.

Topic : The delights and frustrations of a teenager.

Since you copied the essay from: answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090302205934AAj78ZS

we won't be able to help you further here, sorry.

EssayForum

"Adults nowadays do not understand what are the delights and frustrations of a teenagers."

"I believe that frustrations outweighs delights in the world today." Avoid using "I believe." It is your essay; obviously it therefore expresses your beliefs. Also, you might want to add a summary of your reasons for believing this, perhaps previewing some of the frustrations and delights in question.

Hmmmm . . . the rest of your essay seems to deal entirely with the frustrations of being a teenager. Unfortunately, this sort of ignores half of the topic. Worse, you haven't found anything to unite this litany of complaints, so it reads something like a semi-random list of things teenagers dislike about being teenagers.

Wait, I see you do mention the delights after all. But, you have no transition into them, and then, after mentioning them, you completely change your thesis to the opposite side. *Sigh*

Third times a charm -- find a common factor, something you can use to link your ideas beyond their all being frustrations or delights. That will give you some way to meaningfully organize your essay.

Er do you mind editing one paragraph from my essay and add in a transition. Im not really sure how im suppose to do that. Also what do you mean by "you completely change your thesis to the opposite side." is that because of my conclusion?

Ah. I see. You cobbled your essay together from random website. That's never good. You don't learn anything that way, and the final product isn't even likely to net you a high mark. You sort of have the worst of both worlds.

I saw some essay writing guide which said to get information from the internet or books. So i got some information and put it in.

Its getting kinda late here. Ill try writing another tomorrow using more of my own ideas. But the problems is i dont know how to write the thesis and transition and even how an expository writing is suppose to be.

Ill try again which just my ideas! without the internet or book.

You can add information gleaned from the internet or books into your essays so long as you properly acknowledge your source. Using words copied and pasted from a source is never okay unless those words are properly identified as a quotation.

For example, if you looked up some information about tooth decay on the American Dental Association website and used the facts in your essay about dental hygiene, you could say, "According to the American Dental Association," give the facts, and then include a Works Cited page giving all of the details for the website (name, date, URL, date you visited the site, etc.). If you actually quoted text from the website, you would also need to put quotation marks around any quoted sentences or phrases.

Your teacher will likely also expect you to use a specific citation style, so be sure to find out which one before writing up your bibliography.

yes, im working on my essay now. Once its done ill post it here :) thanks for the help.