10 Easy Steps
I decided to culminate my summer writing class with a “cheat sheet” (using the word ‘cheat’ always makes a student more interested). Here is part of the contents:
10 Easy Steps for Writing:
1.Thoroughly read the assignment and make sure you understand it before you begin. Ask questions until you understand exactly what you’re supposed to do.
2.Decide what you will write about. Make sure you have enough information to fill a paragraph (about 4 points). Make sure there is not so much information you cannot cover it well in a paragraph (or whatever the assigned length is).
3.Brainstorm what you want in your paragraph. What points will you have? What specific details will you mention?
4.Make an outline. Put your points in a logical order: chronological (arranged according to when they happened), comparison/contrast (alternate things compared in the same order every time), or climactic (least important to most important).
5.Write your topic sentence. Your topic sentence should introduce the overall point of your paragraph, without saying “I am going to write about” or any variation on that theme. You are the author, they know you’re writing it. Talk about your subject and not yourself.
6.Write the rest of your paragraph. Keep related information together. Aim for two sentences for each point. Remember to include detail and description. Use action verbs whenever possible and try to avoid a whole paragraph that uses only are, is, was, were, being, etc. That will get tedious quickly.
7.Write your conclusion sentence. Make a conclusion, a statement, an opinionated statement and end strongly and boldly. It will help your paragraph stand out.
8.Revise! Always revise! You can always make a paragraph better. See the “Revisions” page for ideas on what to revise.
9.Proofread! Always proofread! After making your major revisions and you have all the words right where you want them, go through your paragraph and check the capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. Keep a sharp eye out for wrong words (are/our, there/their/they’re, here/hear/hare, etc.); the spellcheck cannot read your mind and might give you the correct spelling of the wrong word. Also, it’s a good idea to have someone else look over the paragraph to proofread, because often an author, even a good one, knows what he means and can’t see the mistakes.
10.Add an interesting title, make sure your name and the date is included, and breathe a sigh of relief, save it (I hope you’ve done that every step along the way!), print it, and turn it in!
