The Four Steps in Essay Writing

- College Writing Skills with Readings

Step 1: Begin with a Point, or Thesis

Your first step in writing is to discover what point you want to make and to write that point as a single sentence. There are two reasons for doing this. You want to know right from the start if you have a clear and workable thesis. Also, you will be able to use the thesis as a guide while writing your essay. At any stage you can ask yourself, "Does this support my thesis?" With the thesis as a guide, the danger of drifting away from the point of the essay1 is greatly reduced.

To write a good thesis, you must begin with a subject that is neither too broad nor too narrow. Suppose, for example, that an instructor asks you to write a paper on marriage. A topic such as marriage is obviously too broad to cover in a five-hundred-word essay. You would have to write a book to support adequately any point you might make about the general subject of marriage. What you need to do, then, is limit your subject. Narrow it down until you have a thesis that you can deal with specifically in about five hundred words.

Step 2: Support the Thesis with Specific Evidence2

The first essential step in writing a successful essay is to formulate3 a clearly stated thesis. The second basic step is to support the thesis with specific reasons or details. To ensure that your essay will have adequate support, you may find an informal outline very helpful. Write down a brief version of your thesis idea and then work out and jot down4 the three points that will support the thesis.

Just as a thesis must be developed with three supporting points, each supporting point must be developed with specific details. Specific details are valuable in two key ways. First, details excite the reader's interest. They make writing a pleasure to read, for we all enjoy learning particulars5 about people, places, and things. Second, details serve to explain a writer's points. They give the evidence needed for us to see and understand general ideas.

Step 3: Organize and Connect the Specific Evidence

As you are generating the specific details needed to support a thesis, you should be thinking about ways to organize and connect those details. All the details in your essay must cohere,6 or stick together, so that your reader will be able to move smoothly from one bit of supporting information to the next. This section will show you how to organize and connect supporting details by using common methods of organization, transitions, and other connecting words.

(1) Common Methods of Organization
　　Two common methods used to organize the supporting material in an essay are time order and emphatic order7.
　　Time, or chronological8, order simply means that details are listed as they occur in time. First this is done; next this; then this; after that, this; and so on.
　　Emphatic order is sometimes described as "saving the best till last." It is a way to put emphasis on the most interesting or important detail by placing it in the last part of a paragraph or in the final supporting paragraph of an essay.9

(2) Transitions
　　Transitions signal the direction of a writer's thought. They are like the road signs that guide travelers. Transitional, or linking, sentences10 are used between paragraphs to help tie together the supporting paragraphs in an essay. They enable the reader to move smoothly from the idea in one paragraph to the idea in the next one.

(3) Other Connecting Words
　　In addition to transitions, there are three other kinds of connecting words that help tie together the specific evidence in a paper: repeated words, pronouns, and synonyms.

Step 4: The Fourth Step in Essay Writing

This part will focus on the fourth goal of writing effectively: sentence skills. You'll learn how to revise an essay so that your sentences flow clearly. The following strategies will help you to revise your sentences effectively:

(1) Use Parallelism: Words in a pair or a series should have parallel structure.11 By balancing the items in a pair of series so that they have the same kind of structure, you will make the sentence clearer and easier to read.

(2) Use a Consistent Point of View: Don't shift verb tenses12 unnecessarily. If you begin writing a paper in the present tense, don't shift suddenly to the past. If you begin in the past, don't shift without reason to the present.

(3) Use Specific Words: To be an effective writer, you must use specific words rather than general words. Specific words create pictures in the reader's mind. They help capture interest and make your meaning clear.

(4) Use Active Verbs: When the subject of a sentence performs the action of the verb, the verb is in the active voice. When the subject of a sentence receives the action of a verb, the verb is in the passive voice.

(5) Use Concise Words: Wordiness - using more words than necessary to express a meaning - is often a sign of lazy or careless writing. Your readers may resent the extra time and energy they must spend when you have not done the work needed to make your writing direct and concise.

(6) Vary Your Sentences: One part of effective writing is to vary the kinds of sentences you write. If every sentence follows the same pattern, writing may become monotonous13 to read.

1. 偏离文章的主题。

2. evidence: 论据。

3. formulate: 系统地阐述。

4. jot down: 草草记下。

5. particulars: 详情，细节。

6. cohere: 有条理，连贯。

7. 时间顺序和主次顺序。

8. chronological: 按时间顺序排列的。

9. 主次顺序就是那种"将最好的留到最后"。就是将最有意思或最重要的细节放到一段的最后一部分或文章的最后一段来强调这一细节。

10. 过渡句或连接句。

11. parallelism: 排比； parallel: 类似的，相同的。

12. verb tense: 动词的时态。

13. monotonous: 单调的，令人厌倦的。