Writing Paragraphs

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I’VE GOT PAPER. THE PHONE’S OFF THE

HOOK. IT’S QUIET…

I’M TRAPPED.

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I’M GOING TO SPEND MY WHOLE SUNDAY WRITING.

AND FINALLY GETSTARTED ON MY NOVEL..

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OKAY, WHAT’STHE THEME?

WHERE’S THECONFLICT?

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WHO ARE MYCHARACTERS?WHAT’S THEIRMOTIVATION?

WHERE’S THE PLOTGOING?

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WHERE’S THEREMOTE?

a SUBJECT that you know well and understand,

a clear PURPOSE for writing,

an AUDIENCE that you have identified.

ELEMENTS OF GOOD WRITING: SPA

ENTERTAINMENT

ConcertRock ConcertRolling Stones

‘93 World Tour

ENTERTAINMENT

The MoviesMovie History

Early History

Silent Film Era

SUBJECTfinding an angle by narrowing down a given

subject

to ENTERTAIN

to INFORM

to PERSUADE

PURPOSEWhy am I writing?

AUDIENCEWho will read my writing?

Step One: PrewritingThinking about your topic

Step Two: PlanningOrganizing your material

Step Three: DraftingUsing your ideas and plans to write a first draft

Step Four: RevisingImproving the focus, content, and organization

Step Five: EditingChecking grammar, spelling, punctuation, and word choices

The Writing Process

Some methods:

BrainstormingClusteringFreewriting

Keeping a Journal

Step One: PrewritingThinking about your topic

by preparing an informal outline of ideas generated from prewriting

the outline can be used as a guide to refer to while composing

Step Two: PlanningOrganizing your material

Remember two points:1. State your point, and

2. Support your point

Step Three: DraftingUsing your ideas and plans to write a first draft

A good Topic Sentence:

States the topic of the paragraph Identifies the controlling idea Expresses the writer’s attitude

about the topic

Step Three: DraftingUsing your ideas and plans to write a first draft

Let’s do something about it!

A bad Topic Sentence:

Too generalToo narrow

Lacks a controlling idea

Step Three: DraftingUsing your ideas and plans to write a first draft

Let’s also do something about it!

Is that clear so far?

In addition, a good paragraph must have unity

and coherence.

Step Three: DraftingUsing your ideas and plans to write a first draft

UnityAll supporting sentences relate to the main topic and develop

the controlling idea.

Step Three: DraftingUsing your ideas and plans to write a first draft

CoherenceAll sentences are arranged so

that the ideas are in logical order.

Step Three: DraftingUsing your ideas and plans to write a first draft

To achieve coherence:

1. A clear plan of arrangement Time order Spatial order Order of importance

2. Transitions to connect ideas

Step Three: DraftingUsing your ideas and plans to write a first draft