essay writing for elementary students

Essay Writing: A complete guide for students and teachers

P LANNING, PARAGRAPHING AND POLISHING: FINE-TUNING THE PERFECT ESSAY

Essay writing is an essential skill for every student. Whether writing a particular academic essay (such as persuasive, narrative, descriptive, or expository) or a timed exam essay, the key to getting good at writing is to write. Creating opportunities for our students to engage in extended writing activities will go a long way to helping them improve their skills as scribes.

But, putting the hours in alone will not be enough to attain the highest levels in essay writing. Practice must be meaningful. Once students have a broad overview of how to structure the various types of essays, they are ready to narrow in on the minor details that will enable them to fine-tune their work as a lean vehicle of their thoughts and ideas.

In this article, we will drill down to some aspects that will assist students in taking their essay writing skills up a notch. Many ideas and activities can be integrated into broader lesson plans based on essay writing. Often, though, they will work effectively in isolation – just as athletes isolate physical movements to drill that are relevant to their sport. When these movements become second nature, they can be repeated naturally in the context of the game or in our case, the writing of the essay.

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Planning an essay

The Boys Scouts’ motto is famously ‘Be Prepared’. It’s a solid motto that can be applied to most aspects of life; essay writing is no different. Given the purpose of an essay is generally to present a logical and reasoned argument, investing time in organising arguments, ideas, and structure would seem to be time well spent.

Given that essays can take a wide range of forms and that we all have our own individual approaches to writing, it stands to reason that there will be no single best approach to the planning stage of essay writing. That said, there are several helpful hints and techniques we can share with our students to help them wrestle their ideas into a writable form. Let’s take a look at a few of the best of these:

BREAK THE QUESTION DOWN: UNDERSTAND YOUR ESSAY TOPIC.

Whether students are tackling an assignment that you have set for them in class or responding to an essay prompt in an exam situation, they should get into the habit of analyzing the nature of the task. To do this, they should unravel the question’s meaning or prompt. Students can practice this in class by responding to various essay titles, questions, and prompts, thereby gaining valuable experience breaking these down.

Have students work in groups to underline and dissect the keywords and phrases and discuss what exactly is being asked of them in the task. Are they being asked to discuss, describe, persuade, or explain? Understanding the exact nature of the task is crucial before going any further in the planning process, never mind the writing process .

BRAINSTORM AND MIND MAP WHAT YOU KNOW:

Once students have understood what the essay task asks them, they should consider what they know about the topic and, often, how they feel about it. When teaching essay writing, we so often emphasize that it is about expressing our opinions on things, but for our younger students what they think about something isn’t always obvious, even to themselves.

Brainstorming and mind-mapping what they know about a topic offers them an opportunity to uncover not just what they already know about a topic, but also gives them a chance to reveal to themselves what they think about the topic. This will help guide them in structuring their research and, later, the essay they will write . When writing an essay in an exam context, this may be the only ‘research’ the student can undertake before the writing, so practicing this will be even more important.

RESEARCH YOUR ESSAY

The previous step above should reveal to students the general direction their research will take. With the ubiquitousness of the internet, gone are the days of students relying on a single well-thumbed encyclopaedia from the school library as their sole authoritative source in their essay. If anything, the real problem for our students today is narrowing down their sources to a manageable number. Students should use the information from the previous step to help here. At this stage, it is important that they:

●      Ensure the research material is directly relevant to the essay task

●      Record in detail the sources of the information that they will use in their essay

●      Engage with the material personally by asking questions and challenging their own biases

●      Identify the key points that will be made in their essay

●      Group ideas, counterarguments, and opinions together

●      Identify the overarching argument they will make in their own essay.

Once these stages have been completed the student is ready to organise their points into a logical order.

WRITING YOUR ESSAY

There are a number of ways for students to organize their points in preparation for writing. They can use graphic organizers , post-it notes, or any number of available writing apps. The important thing for them to consider here is that their points should follow a logical progression. This progression of their argument will be expressed in the form of body paragraphs that will inform the structure of their finished essay.

The number of paragraphs contained in an essay will depend on a number of factors such as word limits, time limits, the complexity of the question etc. Regardless of the essay’s length, students should ensure their essay follows the Rule of Three in that every essay they write contains an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Generally speaking, essay paragraphs will focus on one main idea that is usually expressed in a topic sentence that is followed by a series of supporting sentences that bolster that main idea. The first and final sentences are of the most significance here with the first sentence of a paragraph making the point to the reader and the final sentence of the paragraph making the overall relevance to the essay’s argument crystal clear. 

Though students will most likely be familiar with the broad generic structure of essays, it is worth investing time to ensure they have a clear conception of how each part of the essay works, that is, of the exact nature of the task it performs. Let’s review:

Common Essay Structure

Introduction: Provides the reader with context for the essay. It states the broad argument that the essay will make and informs the reader of the writer’s general perspective and approach to the question.

Body Paragraphs: These are the ‘meat’ of the essay and lay out the argument stated in the introduction point by point with supporting evidence.

Conclusion: Usually, the conclusion will restate the central argument while summarising the essay’s main supporting reasons before linking everything back to the original question.

ESSAY WRITING PARAGRAPH WRITING TIPS

●      Each paragraph should focus on a single main idea

●      Paragraphs should follow a logical sequence; students should group similar ideas together to avoid incoherence

●      Paragraphs should be denoted consistently; students should choose either to indent or skip a line

●      Transition words and phrases such as alternatively , consequently , in contrast should be used to give flow and provide a bridge between paragraphs.

HOW TO EDIT AN ESSAY

Students shouldn’t expect their essays to emerge from the writing process perfectly formed. Except in exam situations and the like, thorough editing is an essential aspect in the writing process. 

Often, students struggle with this aspect of the process the most. After spending hours of effort on planning, research, and writing the first draft, students can be reluctant to go back over the same terrain they have so recently travelled. It is important at this point to give them some helpful guidelines to help them to know what to look out for. The following tips will provide just such help: 

One Piece at a Time: There is a lot to look out for in the editing process and often students overlook aspects as they try to juggle too many balls during the process. One effective strategy to combat this is for students to perform a number of rounds of editing with each focusing on a different aspect. For example, the first round could focus on content, the second round on looking out for word repetition (use a thesaurus to help here), with the third attending to spelling and grammar.

Sum It Up: When reviewing the paragraphs they have written, a good starting point is for students to read each paragraph and attempt to sum up its main point in a single line. If this is not possible, their readers will most likely have difficulty following their train of thought too and the paragraph needs to be overhauled.

Let It Breathe: When possible, encourage students to allow some time for their essay to ‘breathe’ before returning to it for editing purposes. This may require some skilful time management on the part of the student, for example, a student rush-writing the night before the deadline does not lend itself to effective editing. Fresh eyes are one of the sharpest tools in the writer’s toolbox.

Read It Aloud: This time-tested editing method is a great way for students to identify mistakes and typos in their work. We tend to read things more slowly when reading aloud giving us the time to spot errors. Also, when we read silently our minds can often fill in the gaps or gloss over the mistakes that will become apparent when we read out loud.

Phone a Friend: Peer editing is another great way to identify errors that our brains may miss when reading our own work. Encourage students to partner up for a little ‘you scratch my back, I scratch yours’.

Use Tech Tools: We need to ensure our students have the mental tools to edit their own work and for this they will need a good grasp of English grammar and punctuation. However, there are also a wealth of tech tools such as spellcheck and grammar checks that can offer a great once-over option to catch anything students may have missed in earlier editing rounds.

Putting the Jewels on Display: While some struggle to edit, others struggle to let go. There comes a point when it is time for students to release their work to the reader. They must learn to relinquish control after the creation is complete. This will be much easier to achieve if the student feels that they have done everything in their control to ensure their essay is representative of the best of their abilities and if they have followed the advice here, they should be confident they have done so.

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Student Writing Samples and Analysis for Elementary, Middle School, and High School: Complete Collection

How do you bring objectivity to teaching writing? Authentic student writing samples from state writing assessments are an excellent tool that helps teachers bring objectivity to teaching writing. Of course, it sure helps if the writing samples are accompanied by objective analysis, scoring, and commentary. You will find all of that and more on this page!

Many teachers evaluate their students’ writing progress by examining what they can get their students to produce as an end result. They look at what they can get their students to produce in a lesson, and they place great importance on what they can get their students to produce to place on a bulletin board. Certainly, I care about those things, too. But I primarily measure my students’ writing progress by examining and monitoring their independent writing. It’s not about what I can get them to do—it’s about what they do when left to their own devices.

We have three types of independent student writing:

1.   daily writing across the curriculum 2.   state and district writing assessments 3.   independent writing assignments

My purpose here is not to discuss independent student writing, but instead to explain why the following collection of objective, authentic student writing samples are so valuable and helpful. Usually, when we see samples of student writing (other than our own students’ writing), they are polished examples, and we have no idea of what went into creating them. How much time? How many drafts? Who guided the piece of writing? How much guiding? What forms of guidance?

In contrast, we all know exactly how these state writing assessment samples were created; we all know the exact writing situation in which these pieces of writing were created; we all know that no teacher had any influence on any of these pieces of writing once the assignment was given. This writing is what students produced when given plenty of time and left to their own devices.

An Awesome Collection of Released Student-Writing Samples with Analysis and Commentary

I have always linked to valuable collections of resources that I have come across that can help teachers teach writing and achieve success on writing assessments. Here are two of the best:

1.  Released Writing Prompts for State Testing

2.  State Writing Assessment Tools and Resources : This page contains links to all of these valuable resources from many state writing assessments: 1) released writing prompts, 2) scoring rubrics, 3) anchor papers, scoring commentary, student writing samples, 4) teacher guides and/or test directions, 5) and more!

Below you will find another collection of valuable resources—a collection of released student writing samples. Since creating Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay , I’ve interacted with teachers from all over the country—and even the world. A kind teacher up in Oregon who is using Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay sent me these links. She is thrilled that the number of her students scoring high on the Oregon State Writing Assessment has doubled since she began using the program.

This collection of released student writing samples has five great qualities:

1.   It includes writing samples for grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10.

2.   It includes scoring analysis for every single essay in grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10.

3.   It includes writing samples for four important genres: 1) expository, 2) narrative: personal, 3) narrative: imaginative, and 4) persuasive (starts in grade 5).

4.   It includes writing samples for five scoring levels: 1) low, 2) medium-low, 3) medium, 4) medium-high, and 5) high.

5.   In total, the collection contains about 325 pages of released student writing samples and scoring analysis!

Here’s the Collection!

Please Note: I used to link to the scoring guide and rubrics, but the files seem to have been moved. Truthfully, they are not necessary at all. Furthermore, you will find links to many excellent Six-Trait rubrics here , including the original Six Traits rubric from Oregon (where it all began).

This collection scores papers using the Six Traits of Writing: 1) Ideas and Content, 2) Organization, 3) Voice, 4) Word Choice, 5) Sentence Fluency, and 6) Conventions. Since the rise of the Common Core, Oregon has used a couple of different scoring models that use different traits, including a few genre-specific traits. However, this collection of student writing samples remains one of the best available.

•  Grade 3 Student Writing Samples and Scoring Analysis

•  Grade 4 Student Writing Samples and Scoring Analysis

•  Grade 5 Student Writing Samples and Scoring Analysis

•  Grade 6 Student Writing Samples and Scoring Analysis

•  Grade 7 Student Writing Samples and Scoring Analysis

•  Grade 8 Student Writing Samples and Scoring Analysis

•  Grade 9 There aren’t any.

•  Grade 10 Student Writing Samples and Scoring Analysis

Common Core Update: 686 Pages of K-12 Common Core Student Writing Samples

Are you interested in 686 pages of K-12 Common Core student writing samples? If you are, be sure to download this awesome collection! To be honest, I was surprised when I clicked on the link and discovered this wonderful bounty.

•  In Common: Effective Writing for All Students Collection of All Student Work Samples, K-12

Are You Interested in Paragraphs?

Now that you have your student writing samples, I pose this question to you: Do you want to understand how the best writers and the lowest scoring writers created their paragraphs on those writing samples? If you do, be sure to read the following two resources. The above collection of student writing samples played a role in both of these:

1.  Paragraph Length: How the Best Student Writers Create Paragraphs on State Writing Assessments   2.  The Ten Stages of Paragraph and Multi-Paragraph Mastery eBook

How to Use These Student Writing Samples to Teach Writing

“Habit #2: Start with the end in mind.” Stephen R. Covey – The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Primary Purpose: The primary purpose of these student writing samples is to help teachers become experts in analyzing student writing. Furthermore, these student writing samples help teachers figure out how to begin with the end in mind. Teachers must begin with the end in mind if they want their students’ writing to end up where they want it to be.

Furthermore, teachers can use these student writing samples in the classroom to teach students about creating, analyzing, and evaluating writing. Here are ten ideas to get you started:

1.   Choose and print out a few essays and commentary that you want to focus on.

2.   Examine the essays and commentary. What are your students doing correctly? What are your students not doing correctly? What do your students need to learn? Read the commentary and make a list of skills that you want to teach your students. Plan out how you are going to teach those skills.

3.   Use a Six-Trait rubric go over a number of essays with your students. (You will find links to many different Six-Trait rubrics here .) Teach your students what scorers are looking for. What makes for a high scoring essay and what makes for a low scoring essay? What went right with the high-scoring essays? What went wrong with the low-scoring essays?

4.   Create or find a few student-friendly rubrics . Have students score at least a few essays using these rubrics. Make sure your students understand the rubrics, and if you have the time, you may want to have your students help create a simple rubric.

5.   Compare and contrast the genres. This activity is a great way to show students different types of writing and different styles. Play the game, “Name the Genre.” What are the qualities and characteristics of the writing genre that you see in the sample essays? How can you tell it is a particular type of writing? (Note: “Name the Genre” is also an effective strategy to use with writing prompts, and in particular, with released writing prompts .)

6.   Have students compare and contrast essays that have different scores. Have students compare and contrast essays with the same scores but from different grades levels.

7.   Use the low scores to show your students how good their writing is. Use the high scores to show your students where they need to improve.

8.   Have students edit or build upon one of the sample essays. Take one of the low scoring essays and have your students transform it into a high scoring essay. You can do this with each genre of writing. Help your students see the similarities and the differences across different types of writing.

9.   Demonstrate how neatness matters. Some of the sample essays are messy. Even a few high scoring ones are messy. Discuss how difficult it can be for scorers to fairly assess messy writing. Note: Students will often see messy writing on a decent paper and think that the paper is a low scoring paper. Explain that while rubrics do help prevent this rush to judgment, they do not eliminate it. This exercise also helps illustrate how important rubrics are, and how students must, in one sense, write for the rubric.

10.   Show your students how all of the important writing skills that you have been teaching them are found in the high-scoring papers and are missing from the low-scoring papers.

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Essay for Primary School: Simple Guide for Kids [with Samples]

A primary school essay is a short text assigned to elementary or primary school students aged 5 to 11. While typically covering a simple topic with a straightforward structure, it plays a crucial role in learners’ development. An essay for primary school aims to help students build basic writing skills, organize thoughts, and express ideas clearly. Research shows that writing skills are vital for memory, critical thinking, and verbal development. Martin Lotze and colleagues ( Frontiers in Human Neuroscience , 2014) even suggest that writing abilities can boost creativity.

This article, developed by custom-writing experts, begins with guidance on how to write a primary school essay, from choosing a captivating topic to crafting a solid conclusion. The following section lists inspiring essay topics, prompts, and ideas. Finally, you’ll find a primary school essay example you can use as a template for your assignment.

💡 How to Write an Essay for Primary School

An essay is one of the first written assignments you may get. So, we advise you to pay special attention to what your teacher says. Before assigning such a task, they give you explanations for preparing a primary school essay.

Usually, elementary school essays are meant to fire up kids’ imagination and expose their writing skills. No matter what the purpose is, you should approach the task with care.

What should an essay for primary school include?

• A captivating topic ; Selecting a topic is the first thing you will do after you get your assignment. Carefully examine the task’s details and think about something appropriate for your elementary level. Brainstorming your ideas is an excellent place to start.
• A precise and clear thesis statement; Make sure your thesis statement is accurate and brief. Without a clear thesis, your essay will not have a central idea and will be hard to develop. A precise statement tells the reader what your writing is about. Besides, it exposes how good your grip on the central idea is.
• Several introductory sentences; A great introductory paragraph can help you grab your readers’ attention. You can start by including a quote, telling an anecdote, or asking a question. In the introduction, the author also identifies the purpose of the essay and the topic. The paragraph ends with a thesis statement and prepares the reader for the supporting sentences.
• Several supporting sentences; This part of your essay will include the position you presented in the thesis statement. It will either offer an idea or defend it. It can be done in several ways: you can include reasons, examples, and supporting points.
• A strong concluding part. The conclusion wraps up the essay, but it emphasizes all the principal points you have argued throughout your essay. It is the last chance to sway your reader by explaining why the topic is relevant to them. Ending your essay with a strong concluding part shows that the thesis statement has been defended.

Essays for primary schools do not require research or analytical data. All you need is to present your ideas on the specified or chosen topic. Mind the proverb, “the written word remains” while writing your first elementary level essay.

The thing is:

The essay structure explained above will work for assignment kids will face in elementary school, middle school, high school, and up to college level. Teaching kids to write a traditional five-paragraph essay is essential for their academic success. It helps explain to them how to argue their ideas in a coherent and structured manner.

If you need more help with writing essays or with essay proofreading , you are welcome at our site.

✨ Topics for Primary School Essays

See the primary school essay topics that are manageable for an elementary level. It should be interesting for a kid but also informative and engaging for the readers.

These topics will get an A+ for your next school assignment:

• Our world in 50 years;
• My first day at school;
• Future profession;
• My summer holidays;
• My journey through primary school;
• When I grow up… etc.…

You can find a good topic but have no idea how to write a good paper on it. These five essay prompts can be helpful if you need some inspiration.

• What is your favorite day of the week, and why? Think about a day of the week you enjoy the most. Why do you like it? Most of us wait for weekends to rest and spend time outside and with our families and friends. If that’s your case, describe how your usual Sunday looks and explain why you enjoy it.
• What do you like the most about winter? This is another great topic to consider, especially for creative writing. Everyone can pick at least several things they enjoy about winter. Whether it’s the snow, the winter sports, the holidays, or the winter break, write about something you like. It’s a fun and engaging topic for everyone.
• Who’s your hero? All of us have a person they admire. It can be your father, your friend, or a celebrity. Think about the qualities or their actions that make them so special. You can try to tell a little bit about their biography and explain how they influenced you.
• What’s a good friend? You probably have a best friend. In this essay, you can try to explain what qualities do you personally appreciate in them. If you haven’t found a best friend yet, you can try to think about what kind of people you enjoy interacting with.
• Your biggest dream. People are born with the ability to dream. What is your biggest dream? Is it to learn how to drive a boat or visit savanna and see the big five? This essay lets your imagination and your creativity run wild.
• The car I dream about.
• Explain what friendship means to you.
• Describe your parents.
• How do you understand happiness?
• Write how you help your classmates with autism to feel included.
• The most important event of my childhood.
• Discuss why physical activity is important for children and what types of activity you like best.
• Do you like to take part in competitive sports?
• Explain why you like or don’t like figure skating.
• A person who inspires me: my mother .
• What dog would you like to have?
• Describe your visit to Disneyland or any other theme park.
• My travel to Dresden.
• What challenges did you face in primary school?
• Do you believe in online-friendship?
• What do you do when you feel stressed?
• Tell about your puppy and how you take care of it.
• The reasons my teacher is the brightest figure in my life.
• Describe the kindergarten you went to and explain why you liked or didn’t like it.
• How did you deal with bullies in the kindergarten.
• How I won the fight by losing it .
• Write about your favorite primary school teacher.
• Why everyone should have a pet .
• Explain how you interact with other kids at school.
• Tell about the most exciting event in your life.
• Explore how eating healthy food can help you to do better at school.
• Describe your first visit to a museum.
• The difference of being a child in the past and today.
• Write about your trip to Yellowstone National Park and what you liked the most about it.
• What makes a good parent?
• How does your dream home look like?
• Do you remember what difficulties you faced while learning to write?
• Tell about your favorite holiday.
• What do you like about Christmas?
• How I learned to ride a bicycle.
• Describe the lessons you have in primary school and which of them is your favorite.
• Write about your physical education teacher.
• Discuss the pre-school education facility you’ve visited.

Sometimes such prompts can help you better than primary school essay writing samples. First of all, it gives you a direction by leaving you with the questions that only you can answer. Second, it shows you a variety of topics and themes available. Nevertheless, we still encourage you to look at some simple essays for primary school for better results.

All in all:

Essays are the most common academic paper that might seem easy to a writer. Our free tips will help you to get through any kind of paper. Still, if you are stuck on essay writing, you can always ask us for help!

Thank you for reading the article! Share it with peers and leave a comment below to let us know your opinion.

Further reading:

• Essay Topics for Grade 8, 9, 10, 12
• What Does an Excellent Essay Look Like?
• 1000-Word Essays: Quick Answers
• Breaking Down the Types of Essays
• A Complete Guide to Essay Writing
• How to Write a Good 5 Paragraph Essay
• The Basics of Effective Essay Writing: Becton Loveless, Education Corner
• 50 Writing Prompts for Elementary School Children: Janelle Cox, ThoughtCo
• Student Writing Models: Thoughtful Learning K-12
• Elementary Archives: JournalBuddies.com
• Neural correlates of verbal creativity by M. Lotze, K. Erhard, et.al.
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Being a primary school teacher of English language, I have discovered that many students leave primary school without basic essay writing skills. This is because as teachers, we do less to help and guide the learners in this aspect. We do less because we lack the knowledge and ability to guide the learners perfect this writing skills yet it is considered the production stage of language learning. Kindly help me. Guide me further so that I can also guide my learners.

A great suggestion for primary teachers and parents!

This is a very good method to preach the acknowledgments on report writing towards people.

Thank you for your great effort and help. Your blog has taught me many things! Thanks for this fantastic blog post on writing primary school essays.

Thanks for the post on writing essays for primary schools. It’s a real help for me and my son, who just starts to learn how to write essays.

Essay Writing for Elementary English Students

Learn the basics of essay writing for elementary students with clear instructions and helpful examples.

Understanding Essay Writing for Elementary Students

Essay writing is an important skill for elementary school students to develop. It helps them organize their thoughts, practice critical thinking, and communicate their ideas clearly. An essay typically comprises three main parts: introduction, body, and conclusion. Let's break these down and understand how to write each part effectively.

1. Introduction

The introduction is the first paragraph of the essay. Its purpose is to introduce the main topic and grab the reader's attention. Here’s what you should include in the introduction:

• Topic Sentence: Introduce the main topic of the essay.
• Hook: A sentence that grabs the reader’s attention. This could be an interesting fact, a question, or a brief anecdote.
• Thesis Statement: A concise statement that outlines what the essay will discuss. It gives the reader a clear idea of the essay's direction.

The body of the essay is where the main ideas are developed. Each paragraph should focus on a single point that supports the thesis statement. Here’s how to structure each paragraph:

• Topic Sentence: Introduce the main idea of the paragraph.
• Supporting Details: Provide facts, examples, or explanations that support the main idea.
• Concluding Sentence: Wrap up the paragraph and connect it to the next one.

Example: (for the first paragraph in the body)

Continue this format for each point you want to cover in your essay.

3. Conclusion

The conclusion is the final paragraph of the essay. It should summarize the main points and restate the thesis in a new way. The conclusion should give a sense of closure and leave a lasting impression.

Helpful Tips for Young Writers

• Practice Regularly: The more you write, the better you'll get. Try to write a little every day.
• Read a Lot: Reading helps improve vocabulary and understanding of different writing styles. Read books, articles, and essays to see how others write.
• Plan Before You Write: Make an outline of your essay before you start writing. This helps organize your thoughts and makes writing easier.
• Edit and Revise: Writing the first draft is just the beginning. Review your work, make corrections, and improve your sentences. Proofreading is essential.
• Ask for Feedback: Share your essay with a teacher, parent, or friend to get their feedback. Constructive criticism is a great way to improve.

Happy writing!

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How to write a perfect essay

Need to write an essay? Does the assignment feel as big as climbing Mount Everest? Fear not. You’re up to the challenge! The following step-by step tips from the Nat Geo Kids Almanac will help you with this monumental task. 

Sometimes the subject matter of your essay is assigned to you, sometimes it’s not. Either way, you have to decide what you want to say. Start by brainstorming some ideas, writing down any thoughts you have about the subject. Then read over everything you’ve come up with and consider which idea you think is the strongest. Ask yourself what you want to write about the most. Keep in mind the goal of your essay. Can you achieve the goal of the assignment with this topic? If so, you’re good to go.

WRITE A TOPIC SENTENCE

This is the main idea of your essay, a statement of your thoughts on the subject. Again, consider the goal of your essay. Think of the topic sentence as an introduction that tells your reader what the rest of your essay will be about.

OUTLINE YOUR IDEAS

Once you have a good topic sentence, you then need to support that main idea with more detailed information, facts, thoughts, and examples. These supporting points answer one question about your topic sentence—“Why?” This is where research and perhaps more brainstorming come in. Then organize these points in the way you think makes the most sense, probably in order of importance. Now you have an outline for your essay.

ON YOUR MARK, GET SET, WRITE!

Follow your outline, using each of your supporting points as the topic sentence of its own paragraph. Use descriptive words to get your ideas across to the reader. Go into detail, using specific information to tell your story or make your point. Stay on track, making sure that everything you include is somehow related to the main idea of your essay. Use transitions to make your writing flow.

Finish your essay with a conclusion that summarizes your entire essay and 5 restates your main idea.

PROOFREAD AND REVISE

Check for errors in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar. Look for ways to make your writing clear, understandable, and interesting. Use descriptive verbs, adjectives, or adverbs when possible. It also helps to have someone else read your work to point out things you might have missed. Then make the necessary corrections and changes in a second draft. Repeat this revision process once more to make your final draft as good as you can.

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