Writing Process

Getting Ideas Organizing your ideas Writing your first draft Revising to improve content and organization Editing for language errors

Basic Elements of a Paragraph

Most writing in English is organized into paragraphs. A paragraph is a small unit of writing that contains information about one idea. A good paragraph follows this pattern: 1. Topic Sentence 2. Support 3. Conclusion

 Introduce the topic and give your opinion or idea about it in a topic sentence. Develop the topic with supporting sentences containing facts, details or examples. Conclude with a sentence that refers to the topic.

Topic Sentence and Controlling Idea

An effective topic sentence does two things: - It introduces the topic of a paragraph. -It contains a controlling idea that tells the writers opinion, attitude, or idea about the topic. The idea can be a fact, but it must be unique or interesting.

Example Effective topic sentence Many students attend college + to prepare for a career that interests them. Ineffective topic sentence Many students attend college