from The Writer’s World: Paragraphs and Essays
Part I: The Writing Process
Chapter 1: Exploring
Summary

Successful writing involves a step-by-step process that guides you from the initial writing project or assignment to the finished product. The first of these steps, exploration, involves thinking about the topic, audience, and purpose, and exploring prewriting strategies.
Before beginning a writing assignment or project, it is important to understand the requirements. Consider how long the writing assignment must be, when it is due, and any special elements that must be included.
Think about the topic. If it is too general, narrow it by giving it a personal focus or angle. Next consider your audience and what interests them. Then, think about your purpose. Are you writing to inform, to entertain, or to persuade? After you have considered these points, you are ready to begin prewriting.
Exploring strategies are prewriting strategies that will help you get some ideas flowing. The four most common exploring strategies are freewriting, brainstorming, questioning, and clustering.
Two other ways to generate ideas and to practice writing are keeping a journal or a writing portfolio. The journal can be a notebook or computer file where you record your thoughts, ideas, opinions, or impressions. A journal allows you to practice your writing in private and provides you a with a good source of writing material. A writing portfolio is a binder or an electronic file where you keep samples of all your writing in order to have a record of your writing progress.
The second stage of the writing process is developing, which involves five key steps: narrow the topic, express the main idea in a topic sentence, develop supporting ideas, make a plan or outline, and write the first draft.
First, narrow the topic. Make the topic more specific by focusing on some aspect of the topic that interests you. Use one of the exploring (prewriting) techniques to help you narrow the topic.
The next step is to express your main idea. Write a topic sentence (for a paragraph) or a thesis statement (for an essay) that expresses your main point. The topic sentence and thesis statement introduce the topic, state the controlling idea, are usually the most general statement in the paragraph or essay, and are followed by facts and examples that support the main idea.

----->YOU ARE HERE AND YOU SHOULD NOW HAVE YOUR INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH WRITTEN. 11/12/08

Decide on your strategy. Which organizational method have you selected? Write your choice in your blog. Next, continue to read the remainder of this posting.

Once the main idea is clear to you, it is time to focus on the supporting details that will give the reader interesting information about the topic. To determine your paragraph’s supporting details, generate supporting ideas, choose the best ideas, and organize them in a logical manner. The three most common organizational methods are (1) time order, (2) emphatic order, or (3) space order. In time order, information is arranged chronologically. In emphatic order, information is arranged from least to most important, from general to specific, and so forth. In space order, information is arranged according to its location, for instance, from the top to the bottom, from left to right, or from near to far. A plan or outline of a paragraph or essay is a map showing the paragraph’s main and supporting ideas. To make a plan, write down the topic sentence or thesis statement; then list the supporting ideas. In a more formal outline, you can use letters and numbers to organize your ideas.

--->CHECK YOUR PROGRESS HERE. IF YOU NEED TO REWRITE YOUR INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH, DO SO NOW.
The concluding sentence brings the paragraph to a satisfactory close in three ways: restate the topic sentence in a new, refreshing way; make an interesting final observation; or end with a prediction, suggestion, or quotation.

--->CHECK YOUR PROGRESS HERE. IF YOU NEED TO REWRITE YOUR SENTENCE, DO SO NOW. MAKE SURE YOUR INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH HAS AN EFFECTIVE BEGINNING, YOUR THESIS STATEMENT IS INCLUDED IN YOUR PARAGRAPH, AND THAT YOU PROVIDE BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOR YOU TOPIC.

---> NOW, DEVELOP YOUR OUTLINE. USE THE PAGE IN YOUR BOOK THAT IS PROVIDED FOR THAT PURPOSE. POST YOUR OUTLINE TO YOUR BLOG.

-->You should have two postings to your blog: your strategy and your outline. Be sure to date your entries.

*********This is due at the by Thursday COMPLETE your plan or outline. *********