ABSTRACT
An inquisitive, hypothesis-free essay for elementary that can also work for older students can have the following parts: a question and listing of the stories to be examined in the first paragraph, and a second, third, and fourth paragraph in which the writer brings to life a scene from each of the selected stories. The scenes should in some way help to answer the question from the first paragraph. In a concluding fifth paragraph, the answer(s) to the question is stated and the three middle paragraphs are revisited for support of the answer(s). With the essay type in which the hypothesis is stated up front, the middle paragraphs are written to confirm the opening conclusion and the last paragraph makes the connection between the idea and the examples. Questions such as, “Why do people fake? What causes friendships? What are the effects of empathy? How are conflicts solved? What are the effects/causes of bullying?” are useful and interesting to students. This design will fit other content areas as well.
