Rws4

• Knowing the parts of a paragraph and the essay will help you form the framework of your composition, and knowledge of the aspects that make a well-written text will enable you to ensure the quality of your work
• The message you want to communicate will effectively come through if you have a well-written text
• A well-written text is easy to understand, and the properties that make a text easy to understand is the focus of this handout
• It is crucial for you to be familiar with these properties since these are the properties that your own works should have
• Many writers, students, and even employees find that beginning to write can be intimidating
• Experienced writers remind themselves that writing, like other everyday activities, is a process that gets significantly easier with practice
• Writing is a process

  Requires following steps and using strategies to accomplish your goals
• Effective writing can be simply described as good ideas that are expressed well and arranged in the proper order
• Using the strategies and techniques in this lesson can help you overcome the feat of the blank page and confidently begin the writing process
• Thesis statement


  The big idea or controlling idea that you want to present and develop in an essay
• Qualities of a strong thesis statement

  • Specific
  • Precise
  • Demonstrable
  • Forceful
  • Confident
• A thesis statement is one sentence long and appears towards the end of the introduction
• A thesis statement forecasts the content of the essay and suggests how you will organize your information
• When you write, you need to organize your ideas in an order that makes sense
• The writing you complete in all your courses exposes how analytically and critically your mind works
• In some courses, the only direct contact you may have with your instructor is through the assignments you write for the course
• You can make a good impression by spending time ordering your ideas
• Order


  Your choice of what to present first, second, third, and so on in your writing
• The order you pick closely relates to your purpose for writing that particular assignment
• When telling a story

  • It may be important to first describe the background for the action
  • You may need to first describe a 3-D movie projector or a television studio to help readers visualize the setting and scene
• You may want to group your support effectively to convince readers that your point of view on an issue is well reasoned and worthy of belief
• In longer pieces of writing, you may organize different parts in different ways so that your purpose stands out clearly and all parts work together to consistently develop your main point
• The method of organization you choose for your essay is just as important as its content
• Without a clear organizational pattern, your reader could become confused and lose interest
• The way you structure your essay helps your readers draw connections between the body and the thesis, and the structure also keeps you focused as you plan and write the essay
• Choosing your organization pattern before you outline ensures that each body paragraph works to support and develop your thesis
• Three main ways to organize body paragraphs

  • Chronological order
  • Spatial order
  • Order of importance
• Order of importance


  Best used for:

  • Persuading and convincing
  • Ranking items by their importance, benefit, or significance
  • Illustrating a situation, problem, or solution
• When you begin to draft your essay, your ideas may seem to flow from your mind in a seemingly random manner
• Most essays move from the least to the most important point, and the paragraphs are arranged in an effort to build the essay's strength
• Your readers, who bring to the table different backgrounds, viewpoints, and ideas, need you to clearly organize these ideas in order to help process and accept them
• Sometimes, it is necessary to begin with your most important supporting point, such as in an essay that contains a thesis that is highly debatable
• A solid organizational pattern gives your ideas a path that you can follow as you develop your draft
• When writing a persuasive essay

  It is best to begin with the most important point because it immediately captivates your readers and compels them to continue reading
• Knowing how you will organize your paragraphs allows you to better express and analyze your thoughts
• Transitional words to use with order of importance

  • Most importantly
  • Almost as importantly
  • Just as importantly
  • Finally
• Planning the structure of your essay before you choose supporting evidence helps you conduct more effective and targeted research
• For an essay question on a test or a brief oral presentation in class, all you may need to prepare is a short, informal outline in which you jot down key ideas in the order you will present them
• Chronological order


  The arrangement of ideas in the order they actually happened, or will happen if giving instructions
• Formal outline


  A detailed guide that shows how all your supporting ideas relate to each other. It helps you distinguish between ideas that are of equal importance and ones that are of lesser importance. You build your paper based on the framework created by the outline.