descriptive essay

Assignment 5: Essay-Writing Strategies

If you do some Internet exploring, you’ll discover a number of sites devoted to essay-writing strategies. What follows, based on years of experience evaluating student essays, term papers, and research reports, is our perspective on essay-writing strategies.

Strategies That Work

Start Early

Students in search of As will be well served by keeping up with assigned reading and, especially, assigned essay or research paper requirements. When it comes to assigned papers, generally the students who earn As are those who start early and stay with it until their sentences flow like a river; their theses are supported from introduction to crisp conclusion, and their assertions sparkle like stars on a desert night.

Part of succeeding in college is a positive attitude. As a rule, there’s nothing inherently impossible for those who are determined, patient, and not unfamiliar with self-discipline.

Establish a Writing Schedule

A key to effective learning in a college setting is time management. If you don’t manage your time, fleeting time will manage you, ready or not. (What?! You mean that assignment is due today?!) A common approach to time management is marking up a calendar with large squares provided for each day. That may work for you. But, assuming you’re taking other college courses and, quite possibly, also meeting the demands of a day job, you might want to buy a time-budget planner with more space for detail.

Good time management balances the various arenas of your daily life, including free time, time to work out at the gym, time to spend with friends, and, of course, time to devote to your educational goals and objectives. Also, your schedule must allow time for that wondrous restorer of psychic, physical, and mental alertness: sleep.

Prewrite

In whatever form, from freewriting to brainstorming to drafting, give yourself time to do a lot of prewriting. If you’re keeping a journal, write in it often. (The word “journal” is derived from the French word jour, which means “day.” So, think daily.) Meanwhile, for just a moment, reflect on this metaphor: Imagine the sheer magnitude of parachuting dandelion seeds that drift away from a single blossom turned from a sun to a lacy moon. As you work toward a finished essay, you don’t have to be quite that prolific. But do let the metaphor remind you that you’re allowed to explore every angle, every relevant topic, all kinds of accessible sources, and even every wacky idea that comes to mind. Above all, remember: The process of writing feeds on writing. The more you write (and read), the more your writing will improve.

Keep the Editing Process in Perspective

Resist the impulse to edit first drafts on the fly. Just do the writing. If you’ve been wise enough to set up a writing schedule, you’ll have time to let a draft “ferment” for a while before you return to it with an eye on editing.

Follow the Sequence Chain

Research → Analysis à Prewriting → Outlining to organize topic sentences → Crafting a working thesis → Drafting an introduction paragraph as you craft a thesis statement → Drafting the body paragraphs → Drafting the conclusion paragraph → Revising and rewriting; revising and rewriting. Repeat. And at last, edit for grammar, spelling, and mechanics.

Research

Read, read, and read. Gather ideas, evidence, facts, and examples as you try on different topics for fit. Take notes. Keep track of sources that seem relevant for a topic you may choose to write about. (We’ll have more to say about this subject in Assignment 6.)

Analysis

Sort through material you’ve gathered in your research to see if it can guide you to a working thesis. And do remember this: Never confuse a topic with a thesis. Marriage is a topic; adolescent angst is a topic; street crime in urban ghettos is a topic. A topic is a foundation. It’s the field of things, events, and ideas you’ll explore in order to come up with a working thesis. Examples:

· Topic: Urban Poverty → Working Thesis: Reducing urban poverty by improving access to public transportation

· Topic: Workplace Health and Safety → Working Thesis: Reducing the incidence of carpal tunnel disorders

· Topic: Alcoholism → Working Thesis: The effectiveness of 12-step programs

Prewriting Paths

Your prewriting may lead you to create a simple topic outline. When you do that, each topic statement can and should serve as the germ of a topic sentence. In turn, each key topic sentence should guide the structure of a paragraph. While most students choose an outlining approach, it isn’t illegal to start out by simply writing your first draft. However, if you do that, see if you can create a topic outline from that draft. If you have trouble, you’ll want to reconsider the way your paper is organized.

Drafting a Thesis Statement

You already know that your thesis statement is the key sentence in your essay. Therefore, you should let it emerge as you work out your ideas through research, prewriting, and analysis. Don’t cage yourself in if you become unsure about your initial thesis statement. Let the unfolding substance of your essay drafts suggest a better thesis statement, should one occur to you. In fact, just as the title of your essay may be the last thing you write, you can always draft your body paragraphs first and then write your introduction paragraph. Keep this in mind as we explore the art of thesis-statement creation in the next assignment of this lesson.

To Conclude Is to Recapitulate

In a condensed fashion, restate your key assertions and repeat your thesis statement. (Given the support for our thesis, T, in assertions made in paragraphs A, B, and C, our thesis is valid.)

Finishing Touches

While working toward the final draft of your essay, you will have revised and rewritten sentences and paragraphs as a matter of course. However, once you’ve reached your goal (a completed essay), be sure to go over your work one last time before submitting it for evaluation. You can apply four steps in this process.

1. First, after you’ve put your finished essay aside for a while, read the whole paper from beginning to end. If you can, imagine that someone else wrote the essay. Dig into it using the techniques of active reading. (Reading it aloud, as we’ve suggested from time to time, is usually a good idea—especially if you can locate a friendly person who’s willing to devote some time to listening to your out-loud performance.)

2. Second, make sure your final editing and revision involve critical analysis of sentences and how they flow (or don’t) from A to Z in a logical sequence, nicely stitched together with judicially placed transitional words or phrases. Recall that this sort of flow is enhanced by varying sentence length, which may suggest breaking up sentences that tend toward tedium and an absence of clarity.

3. Third, pay attention to your paragraphs. Does each paragraph hinge on a single assertion, preferably in a topic sentence? Do your supporting sentences actually undergird and elaborate on the paragraph’s topic sentence?

4. And finally, edit your paper for grammar, spelling, and mechanics. In that context, by the way, you can forget about excessive checking of grammar and mechanics in your earlier drafts. Save your blue-pencil work for your final draft.

Transitions in Review

Throughout English Composition I, we spent quite a bit of time looking at and thinking about the uses of transitions. But a review couldn’t hurt. Creating flow and readability in your writing largely depends on the use of transitional words or phrases. Consider the passage below. It’s a draft fragment from an essay that appears later in this lesson. Notice the underlined transitions. Now imagine how the paragraph would read if the transitions were deleted.

Arguably, locally based organic farming supports individual and community well-being in at least three ways. Perhaps first and foremost, an agricultural system based on local organic farming will help fight climate change. Large-scale corporate farming, dependent as it is on petroleum and petroleum by-products, is responsible for a hefty contribution to carbon dioxide emissions that produce the greenhouse effect. In no small measure, that’s a result of shipping foods over long distances, burning many tons of carbon dioxide–emitting fuels. Thus, simply by increasingly “going local,” public health can be improved by way of cleaner air and less contaminated water. Second, it should be understood that factory-farm produce comes from soil that has been leached of its inherent nutrients. As some have noted, such “soils” are little more than mineral sponges. Season after season, these dead soils are filled up with artificial fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, which, in turn, are washed away to contaminate streams, ponds, and underground aquifers.

Now, refer to the table below for a refresher on transitional words and phrases for different purposes.

Useful Transitions

To Generalize	as usual, for the most part, in general, as a rule of thumb, generally speaking, ordinarily<
To Summarize	all in all, after all, at last, to sum up, all in all, finally, on balance, by and large, in the long run, on the whole, in summary, in the final analysis, briefly, all things considered, in any event, in conclusion, ultimately
To Show Consequences	as a result, consequently, thus, therefore, (and) for this reason, not surprisingly, inevitably
To Show Exception	except, excepting, besides, aside from, barring, save for, exclusive of, outside of
To Show Contrast and Comparison	by contrast, by comparison, instead, on the one hand, likewise, on the other hand, nevertheless, yet, but, still, even so, rather, on the contrary, conversely
To Show Similarity	likewise, similarly, in a similar sense, comparatively, comparatively speaking, identically, together with, correspondingly, moreover, coupled with
To Indicate Sequence	to begin with, in time, in turn, for the time being, soon, earlier, in the meantime, later on, the next step, meanwhile, simultaneously, afterward, next, then, (and) finally, at the outset
To Add On	furthermore, in addition, moreover, in a similar vein, also, once again, likewise we find
To Exemplify or Illustrate	for instance, for example, in particular, namely, specifically, such as, as in the case of, chiefly, especially, in every case, as an example, in such cases (we find, we see, we observe)
To Emphasize	especially, in particular, particularly, above all, ultimately, strikingly, astonishingly
To Show Direction	here, there, over there, beyond, nearly, opposite, under, above, to the left, to the right, in the distance
To Reiterate	in other words, putting the matter differently, put another way, that is, that is to say, namely (as we’ve observed), briefly, in brief, in short

For an excellent online guide to essay-writing strategies from the American University in Cairo, Egypt, access  http://schools.aucegypt.edu/academics/writing-center/Pages/WritingResources.aspx . Follow the step-by-step guidelines and take notes. Consider what you find here as part of your online text.

Another useful source for writing college papers is available at  http://www.berkshirecc.edu/WritingHandbook .