Tuesday, April 14 - Writing an Opinion Piece and Using the TIDE Chart

Objective: By the end of this lesson, you will know how to use a TIDE chart to organize your ideas and be able to write an effective opinion essay.

The TIDE chart is a way to organize your thoughts before you write. It stands for:

Theme - This can be translated to your introductory paragraph, where you talk about what your whole essay is about or what your opinion is.

Important Evidence - Think of this as the topic sentence of the three main paragraphs of the body of your essay. This is the evidence that holds up your opinion. You will notice your chart has three squares for this. You should enter a different point in each square.

Detailed Explanation - These are the details that become the sentences in each paragraph. So if your important evidence is the topic sentence of a paragraph. The detailed explanation are the three sentences that support your topic sentence. You will notice each of your Detailed Explanation Squares has place for three different details that support your important evidence -- or the main point of your paragraph.

End - This is the final paragraph of your essay. The summing up.

Once you have finished filling out your TIDE chart, you should be able to turn the Theme into the first paragraph of your essay, each of the three Important Evidence (with Detailed Explanation) into the 3 main paragraphs, and the End as your final paragraph.