Six Ideas About Good WritingDo you remember them?

#1

• Use descriptive writing and sensory details.▫ Adjectives, Adverbs, details relating to the five

senses

• Use figurative language.

▫ Similes and Metaphors

Good Writers Show More Than Tell

#2

• Pick an audience that will be interested, impacted, and perhaps changed by your essay.

• How does my audience feel about my topic?

• What does my audience already know?

• What does my audience not already know?

An effective writer understands and

empathizes with his/her audience

#3

• Words have can have nearly the same meaning, but different connotations.

Genius Brainiac

Child Kid

Athlete Jock

The Difference Between the Right Word and

Almost the Right Word is the Difference

Between Lightning and the Lightning Bug

#4

• Your paper is organized around a central thesis statement.

▫ Each body paragraph supports the thesis

• Each body paragraph is organized around one main idea, expressed in a topic sentence

▫ Every sentence in the body paragraph supports the topic sentence.

Academic Writing is Organized

#5

• The Unexamined Life assignment is asking you to think about something in a new way. It is a metacognitive exercise.

Good Writers Practice Metacognition

I wish someone had taught me how to metacognate. Then I wouldn’t be stuck in this stupid PowerPoint.

#6

• Your essay should go through no less than three different versions.

▫ Write the first time to get your ideas out on paper

▫ Rewrite to organize, elaborate, and support your ideas.

▫ Rewrite again to check for proofreading.

Writing is Rewriting