Words in Transition

The beginning of your paper, or the lead as journalists refer to it, is like a personal greeting; it attracts and holds the reader’s attention.
You might consider using one of the following beginnings:

1. An incident, anecdote, or illustration
2. Historical background
3. A quotation
4. A broad, general thesis statement
5. A contradictory or ironic statement
6. A surprising fact or idea
7. A statement
8. A rhetorical question

No matter how you attract your reader’s attention, however, your introduction should clearly relate to your thesis. For this reason, even though the temptation is to get it just right from the outset so you feel you are off to a good start, you may find it best to draft a workable beginning and then revise it after you have written and revised the body of your composition. When the body is in final form, you may have a better idea how to introduce it to your readers.

A good conclusion does more than indicate the end of your composition. You may use it to inspire your reader to some action or new way of thinking about a subject, or you may want to drive home a point you made in your lead by giving another particularly apt example or by repeating a key word or phrase to remind the reader of where you began your composition. You may also use your conclusion to summarize what you have written, but never in a mechanical way and not with such expressions as in summary, in conclusion, or as you can see.

As with beginnings, there are no rules to tell you how to conclude, but there is this simple principle: your conclusion should be a natural outgrowth of what you have said, appropriate to your subject, thesis, purpose, and audience.

See the essays on pages 1-2 and 29-32 for examples of good beginnings and endings.

In writing a draft, your main concern is to get your ideas down on paper. To a certain extent, let the topic take you where it will. Keep writing and do not be overly concerned about the exact wording or whether you punctuate correctly; concentrate on producing a lively flow of ideas and information. Be alert to new ideas about your topic, ideas that are fresh and potentially fruitful. You will revise and edit later.

Try writing your body in two stages. First, concentrate on the paragraphs and look at each individually. Do you provide enough details and examples? Second, look at the paragraphs as a group. Do the paragraphs work together as a unit? Do you need transitions to connect the individual parts logically and make them flow smoothly?

In other section, which deals with paragraphs, you will find advice on writing the topic sentence (PARA la) and the controlling idea (PARA Ib): strategies for paragraph development (PARA 2b) including coherence (PARA 3); and the use of transitions (PARA 3b).
As you write the draft, be mindful of your outline but do not become a slave to it. You may find yourself departing from the outline because you discover something new about your subject through writing about it. Let this happen, but make an “X” or a note in the margin indicating that you may be deviating from your plan. These notes will remind you of what you were thinking as you wrote and allow you to reconsider those thoughts in revising.

WPTips

Triple-spacing for Revision

If you triple-space between lines, you can easily make handwritten revisions on a printout (hard copy). Carry your hard copy with you to read at odd moments; sometimes when you are relaxed and not feeling pressed to produce, you will get new insights into your topic. Before printing out a final copy,. type changes, reformat, and double-space your file.

Sometimes we are so eager to get on with the actual writing that we begin before we are ready, and the results are disappointing. Before beginning to write, therefore, ask yourself, “Am I ready to write?” If you have done a thorough job of gathering ideas and information, if you feel you can accomplish the purpose of your paper, and if you are comfortable with your organizational plan, your answer will be “yes.”

If, however, you feel uneasy, review the steps in the planning stage to get at the cause of your uneasiness. Do you need to gather more information? Adjust your thesis? Rethink your purpose? Refine your organization? Now is the time to engage in critical thinking, to evaluate and clarify your writing plan. Time spent at this juncture is time well spent, and although it may not exactly feel as if you are making progress, you are making critical decisions that will affect the outcome of your composition.

Choose a Good Title

When you write your title is a matter of preference. Some people like to write it first, using it as a banner to guide the rest of the writing. Others prefer to write it last, after they have seen the final development of their ideas. Either way, when you decide to write your title, instead of trying to create the best one, brainstorm about a half dozen so you can choose among them.
A good title announces your subject and prepares your reader for the approach you take. For example, “Why We Crave Horror Movies” by Stephen King is an essay that delivers what its title promises: it explains what for many people is a difficult phenomenon to understand. A good title also hooks your reader. It sets up a question that makes your reader want to read on for an answer. Some titles, such as “Cholesterol” or “The Campus Bookstore” are merely labels. They are not bad, but they do not grab the reader’s interest the way these titles do: “Never Get Sick in July” (why is July worse than other months?); “When Television is a School for Criminals” (can criminals get ideas by watching television?).

WPTips

Capturing Titles

As you work on your composition, titles will occur to you. Do not lose your good ideas; designate an area at the beginning or end of your file and label it “Title Ideas,” so that when a good idea comes along, you can quickly move to that area of the file and type it in. Then, when it comes time to decide on a title, you will have some possibilities and not have to start from scratch.