Writing+1+-+Focusing+your+Essay

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=Writing = =Focusing Your Essay =

1.1 - Focusing Your Essay
Writing a well-focused essay will help you do well on any writing test. Focusing your essay means that everything you include in the essay must relate to your central idea, or focus. No matter what type of essay you write for the test, keep these things in mind while deciding on your focus:
 * Your central idea or focus must respond to the prompt
 * Your focus must not be too vague or too specific
 * Limit your focus to one sentence and place that sentence near the end of your introduction
 * Once you have picked a focus, make sure that everything you include in your essay relates to it

1.2 - Supporting the Central Idea
Even the best focus will not earn you a good score on a writing test if it is not supported. After stating your focus in the introduction, you must develop and support it in the body of your essay. Each body paragraph should begin with a topic sentence to introduce the support that follows it. This support can take many forms, depending on the type of essay you are writing. Some kinds of support you will want to use in your writing test include the following: Remember that a strong essay needs to be focused and well supported. So, while choosing a focus, make sure that you will be able to support it. In other words, write about what you know.
 * ideas, examples, reasons, evidence, details, explanations

1.3 - Organizing Your Essay
Once you have narrowed your essay's focus and gathered your support, you need to think about organization. The essay's organization is the way its ideas and information are presented. An essay is usually organized in three parts that fall in this order:
 * The introduction is a paragraph that catches the reader's attention and states the focus of the essay.
 * The body is one or more paragraphs that contain the essay's support and details.
 * The conclusion is a paragraph that restates the essay's focus and sums up the main points.

1.4 - Writing Your Own

 * First Draft - due
 * Peer-edit -
 * Final Draft - due