Next in Chapter 2 "Exploring, Planning, and Drafting", of Andrea A. Lunsford's book Easy Writer, the author details how to prepare for and complete the drafting process. Lunsford explores how to determine the different factors of a topic by using strategies such as brainstorming, free-writing, and clustering. These strategies can help a writer figure out what they know about a topic and what they need to research further. Next Lunsford talks about developing a working thesis. There are two main parts of a working thesis a topic which is the subject being written about and a comment that produces a significant point on the subject. The author also states that a good thesis needs to be interesting to the audience, specific, but limited enough to be manageable. …show more content…
In this chapter, Lunsford details the planning and drafting process for a writer to organize their ideas with either a formal outline or a rough plan. Lunsford reminds writers to be flexible during the drafting process and not to think twice about changing elements of the essay at this point in the process. Lunsford goes on to explain the qualities academic paragraphs must have these include unity, development and coherence. To obtain unity within a paragraph all sentences should relate to the topic sentence of the paragraph. When developing a paragraph it is important to switch between general and specific ideas in the paragraph, while supporting those ideas with details, evidence and examples as required. Ensuring a paragraph is coherent is crucial when developing an academic paragraph. Because readers need to be able to follow a writers ideas easily, Lunsford gives her readers a method to follow to achieve this goal. This method includes using the general to specific ideas, repetition, parallel structures, and using transition words. The author notes that this method should also be used to link paragraphs
Advancing in my critical thinking skills is as important as my writing skills. I have to take the appropriate steps in continuing to engage the readers throughout the writing process. Writing is crucial as a student and everyday life because it is a form of communication. I will utilize the necessary resources to assist me in applying the lessons being instructed for completion of each assignment in accordance with the University guidelines. Allowing myself to create an outline for the topic before the rough draft is setting
The chapter also goes into explaining the writing process itself in greater detail. Writers are encouraged to first make sure they fully understand their assignment, before then moving onto throwing around ideas (such as by brainstorming, clustering, ect), developing a thesis statement, and scheduling
The Author Reid, E Shelley states the importance of writing, and the tools that college students have in order to create a well-organized, legible and informative essay. The article “Ten Ways to Think about Writing: Metaphoric Musings for College Writing Students” is divided in ten general principles of writing, showing clear examples of each principle through the work, She perfectly explains how reasoning and creativity could work together as a tutorial for college students essay writing.
On a more serious level, coherence is undermined while being one of the writer's and reader's most basic need. "The problem is not that the Five-Paragraph formula produces incoherence but rather that it limits students to a superficial, predictable level or coherence," (232) states Foley. This allows for students to throw any three liberally related ideas together for the body of the essays. Once students fabricate a thesis statement that elucidates for their three ideas, the students feel they have mastered structure. Foley states, "To be asked merely to enumerate three aspects of any topic relieves the student of the need to probe relationships... it robs them of any motivation to do so," (232). Juxtaposition is not
Personally, from the class of English 1101, I have learned on how to use the writing processes effectively, where the first step is to have a pre-write, which focuses on brainstorming ideas form either the group or from individuals’ brain for the required topic. The second phase of the process is the thesis statement, which is the primary idea of the entire essay. I discovered that the thesis statement should be persuasive and truthful. The third step is on developing drafts, where it showed me on how to focus on content, organization, and style. Again, I noted that I must ask myself who is my audience, and what do they want or need to hear.
First, to work on my paragraph organization skills, I started off using two methods, which was brainstorming and webbing. Later on, I found that free-writing along the way also helped me brainstorm ideas to put into my writing. These strategies were from Writing for Success in Chapter 1. It helped me learn to keep my paragraphs in correct sequence and not scrambled in the essays. Which before, it caused
Nunnally states its purpose to “provide[s] for effective inculcation of concepts such as unity, coherence, and development (Nunnally).” The model is structured to unite each paragraph to each other by using a thesis statement paragraph, three supporting paragraphs for said idea and finally, to summarize your essay. The use of transitional words allows the author to smoothly connect each paragraph and idea. Finally, the model develops chronologically. The author will introduce, prove and conclude. The five-paragraph model fulfills its purpose for the inexperienced writers
Organize writing to support a central idea through unity, coherence, and logical development appropriate to
As the semester approaches a conclusion, I have discovered for myself that I happen to exhibit not simply on how I have endured this semester, but then again also what I have gained in knowledge of. In the past four months, I would consider that I obtain an accomplishment of achievement in improving my writing techniques. The most important principle that I have discovered so far ensues on how to become an improved writer. With each writing assignment, I learned additional methods and skills, which tweaked my capabilities to develop my thoughts in detail on paper, to write clearly, and to organize my essays efficiently. In previous years, I would frequently catch myself irritated believing I had terrible writer’s block standing in my path of writing an organized essay. This created a feeling as if I could not distinguish how to write properly and the reasoning behind my hatred for writing. During high school, I learned the Modern Language Association (MLA) formats for bibliographies and parenthetical citations, consequently at the beginning of the fall semester, I knew only this format. I was able to learned the correct format for the American Psychological Association (APA) style when doing each assignment at hand.
As a student experiencing formal education for over 15 years, writing essays, research papers and narrative stories presents itself as nothing new. Every student has a specific writing method ingrained in his or her brain and after years of practice, very little thought goes into creating a formal literary piece. The Lunsford humanizes the methodology of producing quality writing and it characterizes a piece of writing into something more than just a class assignment. Rhetorical situations delve into the complexity of communication through writing. Surrounding the context of a piece of writing there is a topic that needs to be clearly stated, an opinion to be portrayed, and an audience to be thought about. An appropriate topic for a writer to elaborate on is one that either puzzles or interests them. This allows the writer to be engaged in his or her writing and provide a method of effective communication. The opinion on the topic allows the writer to be individual and portray the
In writing an essay I also struggle with incorporating clear topic sentences and connecting my paragraphs ideas back to my thesis statement. This struggle is based on last years’ experience with writing essays. This struggle can be improved upon by concentrating on what exactly my thesis is stating and building my sentences to relate and explain the thesis further. Improving on this will allow my writing ability to increase and help me become a more successful writer.
In lesson five of Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace, 12th Edition, Joseph Williams and Joseph Bizup explains the importance of cohesion and coherence in writing prose. Williams and Bizup describes cohesion as the logical and grammatical flow of one sentence to another, which readers move through a passage in a way that communicates a complete thought. A reader should freely interpret a group of sentences without analyzing fancy words from a thesaurus to understand author’s intent. Furthermore, Williams and Bizup explains the importance to discuss familiar concepts at the beginning of a sentence, and introduce unfamiliar ideas at the end of a sentence. This approach allows readers to recognize the consistent “flow” of ideas toward the
A major area for development and improvement revolves around effective note taking and essay planning/writing. As a Higher Education student you will be required to plan and produce countless essays in relation to the course you are studying, and a key point of reference to help with this would come from “The Guide to Learning and Study Skills for Higher Education and at Work” who give the following advice and tips: ‘Identify the purpose of the essay and who the audience (reader) is and what is required for both – structure your work and develop your arguments/main points – proof read your work and improve language, spelling, punctuation, grammar and style – review what you did and use feedback to improve your essay writing for the future’ (Bingham, R. and Drew, S. 2012 The guide to learning and study skills: For higher Education and at work).
needs to be clear and incorporate references. Address the one main point within the paragraph. no more than one main point. Each paragraph is built around one main idea. One of your body paragraphs will be a reason why you think the way you do.
The piece is structured from start to finish with an intro, body and conclusion paragraphs that facilitate the flow of ideas.