Sunday, June 3, 2007

3rd essays: Suitable topics and essay development

This post is in response to questions that I have received via email about essays, topics and paragraph development. The first question that I'd like to answer is what a good topic is.

I hope another example topic will guide those of you who have not yet chosen a topic for third essays this semester. I also hope that the general advice about form and content in the following paragraphs will guide all of you in essay development and revision, as necessary. In short, I answered:
"Summer vacation is a suitable topic if it's something that you want to write about.... [It should be] something that visitors to your blog will be interested in reading about and commenting on."
(personal correspondence)

Then I decided to share further advice regarding content, form, paragraph division and essay development here - first regarding form: When posting on your blogs, it is important to create white spaces between paragraphs by typing two line returns rather than just one at the end of each paragraph, but no returns anywhere else. The white spaces help your readers identify the beginning and end of each paragraph.

Regarding content, once you have clarified the paragraph divisions in your essay by adding or removing line returns, I suggest that you ask yourself whether each paragraph that you've written has a single focus and is well developed. That is: Is every paragraph in your essay more than one sentence in length? A quick glance should tell.

You should make sure that each paragraph in the body of your essay focuses on a single aspect of the topic that you have chosen - summer vacation, for example: destinations, modes of transportation, educational plans, or rest and relaxation, and that each major sub-topic is in its own paragraph. Then you should make certain that the introductory, body and concluding paragraphs are all more then one sentence long.

The writing guides in the Resources section of Writing Studio Wiki should help you revise, develop and organize your essays. That is especially true about those guides on essay and paragraph development.

Cheers.

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