Establish Your Topic

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Understanding an Assigned Prompt

You may be expected to respond to a "prompt."  Your writing assignment most likely will include certain key words that will suggest the content and structure of your writing assignment.  A prompt is a question or statement that aims to stimulate your thinking, so you can come up with something to write on.  Generally, every writing prompt contains a key word.  So, if you are expected to respond to a specific prompt, such as:

"Discuss the positive characteristics one would expect to find in a good friend,"

The key word "discuss" (see below) tells you what kind of answer you should create. Here is a list of some key words commonly found in writing and what they will mean to you when you respond to your prompt:

Analyze:  Separate out the parts and show how they relate to the whole. For example, whether you are asked to analyze a poem, story, or play, you will need to look at individual elements such as point of view, setting, character, plot, imagery or symbolism, and motif or theme. See how each of these elements contributes to the overall meaning of the work.

Argue:  Give reasons for or against. Be sure to use specific examples to back up your points.

Compare and contrast:  These words often appear together but not always. If you are asked to compare, show the similarities and the differences. If you are asked to contrast, show only the differences.

Describe:  Write about a subject in detail, often so that the reader gets a clear mental picture or image of what you are describing.

Discuss:  Write about a subject in detail, giving reasons and examples.

Summarize:  State the main ideas briefly, leaving out specific examples.

Selecting Your Own Topic

On the other hand, you may be give the freedom to select you own topic:

1. First, choose a subject that interests you, or you know at least 15-25 details about it, e.g., cats.

2. Then try to narrow the subject down to something you can write about knowledgeably. For example, you have a cat, and you know a lot about siamese cats based on your experience of owning one.

3. Now come up with a statement about your topic, siamese cats. "Siamese cats are the greatest variety of cats." This will be your topic sentence, which also has an attitude--"greatest."  You must have an attitude (great, good, bad, magnificent, crazy, etc.) in order to write about something.

4. To write your paper, answer the question "why" at least f15-25 times. A siamese cat is: friendly, good natured, sensitive, playful, etc.  Each on of these "why" words will translate into a sentence with an example.

Hence, if you are asked to find a topic on your own. You may find it difficult. So, give yourself plenty of time to think about what you'd like to do. Trying to answer questions you have about a particular subject may lead you to a good paper idea.

• What subject(s) are you interested in?

• What interests you most about a particular subject?

• Is there anything you wonder about or are puzzled about with regard to that subject?

• Lastly, address the following during the process: how, what, when, where, why.

Be sure your topic is narrow enough so that you can write about it in detail in the number of pages that you are allowed. For example, say you are asked to write a 1-page paper about someone in your family. Since you only have a limited number of pages, you may want to focus on one particular characteristic of that person, or one particular incident from that person's life, rather than trying to write about that person's entire life. Having a narrow focus will help you write a more interesting paper. Too general: I have a sister. Revised: My sister is my best friend.

Similarly, you may be asked to write a 5-page paper about disciplining children. Again, since you only have a limited number of pages, you may choose to focus on one particular type of discipline, rather than trying to talk about discipline in general. Too general: Discipline of the world. Revised: The five major ways to discipline.

One method for narrowing down your topic is called brainstorming. Brainstorming is a useful way to let ideas you didn't know you had come to the surface.

• Sit down with a pencil and paper, or at your computer, and write whatever comes into your head about your topic, no matter how confused or disorganized.

• Keep writing for a short but specific amount of time, say 5-10 minutes. Don't stop to change what you've written or to correct spelling or grammar errors.

• After a few minutes, read through what you have written. You will probably cross out a lot of it, but some of what you've written may give you an ideas about the sentences/paragraph you are going to write.

• Do some more brainstorming with others to see what else you can come up with.

Organize Your Ideas
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1. Develop an outline to organize your ideas. An outline shows your main ideas and the order in which you are going to write about them. Click here to see some sample outlines.

   • Write down all the main ideas.

   • List the subordinate ideas below the main ideas.

   • Avoid any repetition of ideas.

Write a First Draft
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1. Every essay or paper is made up of three parts:

   • Introduction

   • Body

   • Conclusion

2. The introduction is the first paragraph of the paper. It often begins with a general statement about the topic and ends with a more specific statement of the main idea of your paper. The purpose of the introduction is to let the reader know what the topic is and inform the reader about your point of view and arouse the reader's curiosity so that he or she will want to read about your topic

3. The body of the paper follows the introduction. It consists of a number of paragraphs in which you develop your ideas in detail.

   • Limit each paragraph to one main idea. (Don't try to talk about more than one idea per paragraph.)

   • Prove your points continually by using specific examples and quotations.

   • Use transition words to ensure a smooth flow of ideas from paragraph to paragraph.

4. The conclusion is the last paragraph of the paper. Its purpose is to summarize your main points, leaving out specific examples and restate the main idea of the paper

Revise the First Draft
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1. Just as an essay is made up of related paragraphs that develop a central point, a paragraph is made up of related sentences that develop a central point. If a sentence in a paragraph does not provide evidence for the main idea of the paragraph, delete it, rewrite it, or move it to another paragraph.

   Paragraph	Topic Sentence }	Main Idea
   	Supporting Sentences	Supporting Idea 1 Supporting Idea 2 Supporting Idea 3 Supporting Idea 3 Supporting Idea 4 Etc.
   	Conclusion }	Main Idea Restated

2. Check to make sure you have not accidentally left out an important point. If so, add a sentence or paragraph to clarify your meaning or provide further evidence for your main point.

3. Check to make sure that all your subordinate ideas support the main idea. If you have accidentally included something that does not support the main idea, delete it.

4. Try to set aside your draft for a day or two before revising. This makes it easier to view your work objectively and see any gaps or problems.

Revising involves rethinking your ideas, refining your arguments, reorganizing paragraphs, and rewording sentences. You may need to develop your ideas in more detail, give more evidence to support your claims, or delete material that is unnecessary. For more advice on revising and a sample revision, click

After you have written your first draft, you will need to revise it. Read your draft carefully to make sure that it is well organized.

Remember, an essay is a group of related paragraphs about one main idea. The introduction states the main idea. The body paragraphs contain the subordinate ideas that support the main idea. The conclusion restates the main idea and indicates the end.

Essay	Introduction	Main Idea
	Body	Supporting Paragraph 1 Supporting Paragraph 2 Supporting Paragraph 3
	Conclusion	Main Idea Restated

If ideas don't flow in a logical sequence from paragraph to paragraph, move the paragraphs around until your main points fall into a clear pattern. For example, you may want to organize your ideas chronologically, according to how things happened from start to finish in time, or you may want to talk about your ideas in order of their importance.

Of course, you should organize your ideas in an outline long before you sit down to write. If you need to, you can change your outline as you write your essay.

Read your paper out loud. This sometimes makes it easier to identify writing that is awkward or unclear.

Have somebody else read the paper and tell you if there's anything that's unclear or confusing.

Proofread the Final Draft
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1. Look for careless errors such as misspelled words and incorrect punctuation and capitalization.
   

2. Errors are harder to spot on a computer screen than on paper. If you type your paper on a computer, print out a copy to proofread. Remember, spell checkers and grammar checkers don't always catch errors, so it is best not to rely on them too much.

How to Write a Five Paragraph Essay

While the classic five paragraph essay is a form seldom if ever used by professional writers, it is commonly assigned to students to help them organize and develop their ideas in writing. It can also be a very useful way to write a complete and clear response to an essay question on an exam. It has, not surprisingly, five paragraphs:

• an introduction

• three main body paragraphs

• a conclusion

We'll look at each type of paragraph, and at transitions, the glue that holds them together.

Introduction

The introduction should start with a general discussion of your subject and lead to a very specific statement of your main point, or thesis. Sometimes an essay begins with a "grabber," such as a challenging claim, or surprising story to catch a reader's attention. The thesis should tell in one (or at most two) sentence(s), what your overall point or argument is, and briefly, what your main body paragraphs will be about.

For example, in an essay about the importance of airbags in cars, the introduction might start with some information about car accidents and survival rates. It might also have a grabber about someone who survived a terrible accident because of an airbag. The thesis would briefly state the main reasons for recommending airbags, and each reason would be discussed in the main body of the essay.

Main Body Paragraphs

Each main body paragraph will focus on a single idea, reason, or example that supports your thesis. Each paragraph will have a clear topic sentence (a mini thesis that states the main idea of the paragraph) and as much discussion or explanation as is necessary to explain the point. You should try to use details and specific examples to make your ideas clear and convincing.

Conclusion

Your conclusion begins with a restatement of your main point; but be sure to paraphrase, not just repeat your thesis sentence. Then you want to add some sentences that emphasize the importance of the topic and the significance of your view. Think about what idea or feeling you want to leave your reader with. The conclusion is the reverse of the introduction in that it starts out very specific and becomes a bit more general as you finish.

Transitions

Transitions connect your paragraphs to one another, especially the main body ones. It's not effective to simply jump from one idea to the next; you need to use the end of one paragraph and/or the beginning of the next to show the relationship between the two ideas.

Between each paragraph and the one that follows, you need a transition. It can be built in to the topic sentence of the next paragraph, or it can be the concluding sentence of the first. It can even be a little of both. To express the relationship between the two paragraphs, think about words and phrases that compare and contrast.

• Does the first paragraph tell us a pro and the second a con?

• Does the second paragraph tell us something of greater significance?

• An earlier historical example?

• A different kind of consideration? (money versus time).

Think about your paragraph topics and brainstorm until you find the most relevant links between them. Please keep in mind that transitional words cannot be used as punctuation; they are "nothing-words."  They are words to clarify what you are writing about, but as far as punctuation goes, they do "nothing."

You'll also want some kind of transition from the last paragraph to your conclusion. One way is to sum up your third body paragraph with some reminders of your other paragraphs. You don't need to restate the topics fully (that comes in the conclusion) but you can refer to a detail, or example, or character as a way of pulling your ideas together.