L4: Principles of Effective Writing

• paragraph

  a group of interrelated sentences that talks about one main idea
• essay

  a group of paragraphs that talks about a central idea
• topic sentence

  the central idea of the paragraph
• body

  consists of supporting detail that clarifies and proves the main idea
• closing sentence

  concludes the details that have been presented
• property of a well written text

  • unity
  • coherence and cohesion
  • organization
  • language use
  • mechanics
• unity

  contains one focused idea
• coherence and cohesion

  achieved when ideas are logically and smoothly linked to one another
• organization

  achieved when ideas are accurately arranged
• language use

  language used must have the clearest indications in the text
• mechanics

  this should not be overlooked when writing