Today, Hudson worked more on adding detail and elaboration to his how-to essay. We moved onto body paragraphs 2, 3 and the conclusion.

Hudson identified key details in body paragraphs 2 and 3, and added elaboration to clarify the steps of how to fish and the reason behind each step.

After moving onto the conclusion, we reviewed the hourglass shape of an essay and discussed that after the narrower (more specific) section of the conclusion (the restated thesis), we need to write a few broad (more general) sentences relating the subject of how to fish to the reader. We brainstormed some ways to do this: after reading the essay, the reader can catch more fish, or the reader can have more fun and less stress while fishing. Hudson used these ideas to finish his conclusion.

I then explained that after adding the details and elaboration, we need to go back through the essay and proofread. I pointed out that in MLA format we do not use contractions, so as we read back through the essay Hudson changed any contractions to the full words written out.

We also had a mini-lesson on proper usage of the following common grammar errors: possessive versus plural nouns (dog's/dogs), their/there/they're, and your/you're.