Familiarize them with the basic format of the essay and the general conventions for writing an academic essay. Allow the students to note the lack of introductory and concluding information included ...

For example, the first two topic sentences in a basic critical essay on the theme of Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 18’ might look like this: The first way in which Shakespeare explores the theme of ...

For an essay question on theme, you could write this basic introduction: ‘Sonnet 18’ by William Shakespeare is a poem that has an important theme of love. Shakespeare uses different techniques ...