BBI 1113 Basic Writing Skills Writing An Essay

BBI 1113 Basic Writing Skills

There would be five paragraphs in an extended essay. Generally the process of writing involves three main stages. They are :

i)      Pre-writing (Generating ideas)

ii)    Outlining (Organising Ideas)

iii)  Drafting

Pre-writing (Generating Ideas)

The main goal of pre-writing is to generate information or ideas before one starts writing. At this stage, you need to consider your audience or reader, and also the purpose of writing an essay. There are several ways that can be used in pre-writing. These include:

Questioning

This is one way to generate ideas to begin writing. This can be done by asking the ‘Wh- types of question.

Diagramming

Diagramming or can also be known as clustering is one way in which mind-mapping is used. This visual way helps to generate ideas by putting or clustering them down in the form of a map.

Brainstorming

When using brainstorming technique, many ideas are listed before the writing begins.

Outlining (Organising ideas)

Before writing the first draft, it is advisable to prepare an outline. An outline acts as a brief plan of an essay. It gives structure to an essay and the coherence or the relationship of ideas discussed. Therefore, the ideas can be developed more thoroughly.

Drafting

Most paragraphs in an essay have a three-part structure: introduction, body, and conclusion. You can see this structure in paragraphs whether they are narrating, describing, comparing, contrasting, or analyzing information. Each part of the paragraph plays an important role in communicating your meaning to your reader.

Introduction: the first section of a paragraph; should include the topic sentence and any other sentences at the beginning of the paragraph that give background information or provide a transition.

Body: follows the introduction; discusses the controlling idea, using facts, arguments, analysis, examples, and other information.

Conclusion: the final section; summarizes the connections between the information discussed in the body of the paragraph and the paragraph’s controlling idea.

Introduction	·       The first paragraph introduces the topic ·       It can be a definition or an explanation of the topic ·       Opening sentence (s) to capture the reader interest ·       Thesis statement (main idea) must be presented in the introductory paragraph
Body (supporting paragraphs)	·       It consists of the topic sentence (main points of each paragraph) and the supporting details of the main points.
Conclusion	·       Sum up the discussion / Summary of main points ·       Stress again on the thesis statement ·       It can also be your prediction or opinion