The Art Book of Writing

Paragraphs Paragraphs – a group of sentences that together convey a shared purpose structured around the same topic.

Introductory Paragraphs (Introductions) Hook (Lead / Opening Statement) – can begin with the title Anecdotal (Brief story to set the mood and lead the reader into the topic) People can express themselves in a variety of different ways. Art, being one of them, gives people a diverse spectrum of possibilities they can create. Anybody can create art with the correct given materials. Art isn’t just painting on a canvas, which is what a lot of people assume. You can basically create anything your heart desires as your own form of art.

Query Based (Question that brings the reader to the topic - avoid second person POV “you”) Does art influence children positively or negatively?

Thesis Statements (the purpose of a piece of writing – usually one sentence in length, but can be longer depending on the purpose – must be something that is arguable) Assertion (claim - a subject + a “so what” about the subject) Art has been proven to enhance children’s learning ability, so more kids should be exposed to art.

Fact (empirically verifiable but often difficult to argue extensively about better used as evidence to support a claim) Art supplies can sometimes be expensive.

Opinion (personal position on a topic) Art is a great stress and anxiety reliever.

Belief (social, religious, or political in nature – an opinion held by many to be a fact, though it is not necessarily factual – often involves a judgement) Art should not be censored just because it upsets a certain group of people.

Generalization (uses absolute or statistical pronouns: all, always, every, never, none, most, half – avoid using this type of thesis statement unless citing the source of the data) Art should never be used to harm anyone.

Document Based (cites a specific source, author, and position on a topic) In Art news, Kenna discusses how she likes to display her favorite art pieces, in order to represent her relationship with art.