Writing (Essays)

The term “expository writing” includes most factual writing.  When you write instructions for people, explain something, describe something, report on something, or provide information, you are doing expository writing.  You use expository writing every day.  The steps in your LEGO kits that tell you how to build a spaceship are examples of expository writing.  Likewise, the instructions on the back of your shampoo bottle are expository writing.  So are newspaper articles, book reports, state reports, and a huge proportion of the writing

Personal essays are some of the most fun pieces of writing to read.  Most magazines and newspapers publish personal essays.  Most authors (of both fiction and nonfiction) spend at least some time writing personal essays.

Sometimes the hardest part of writing is figuring out what to write about.

Use these lists of writing prompts to find some good writing topics for your students.  Choose a prompt together -- or let the student choose.

When assigning writing, make sure to let the student know:

Good writers write descriptively.  A good writer does not have to tell how a character feels, because a good writer can show how a character feels by describing how the character looks, behaves, and thinks. Descriptive writing includes details that appeal to the five senses: sight, taste, touch, smell, and hearing. In descriptive writing, the writer must convey information that appeals to all the senses, in order to give the best possible description to the reader.

One of the most common types of writing that you’ll do in school is the “persuasive essay.”  In a persuasive essay, you try to convince other people to do something or to believe something.

The persuasive essay fits well in the standard 5-paragraph essay formation:

Supporting paragraphs provide support for the thesis of the essay.

The first sentence of each supporting paragraph should be a topic sentence, which provides the overall argument of the paragraph AND shows how the paragraph supports the thesis.

Once you write the topic sentence, which makes the key argument of the paragraph, you need to support that topic sentence.  You can support a topic sentence in several ways:

In most essays, each body paragraph should begin with a topic sentence. Works of fiction and very stylized writing, like personal essays, do not always follow this rule, but expository and persuasive essays are typical most effective when they are well organized and topic sentences really help essays stay organized. NOTE: standardized tests highly value organization and readability in essays, so when writing an essay for a standardized test, use topic sentences!)

What does a topic sentence do?

When writing, it's important to think about the sequencing of statements.  Just as a sentence has particular parts (subject, verb, direct object) that go in particular orders, sentences should also be arranged in a way that maximizes impact.

There is no one right way to organize sentences, but the organization should be logical and you should havea reason for your sequencing.

Let's say you were trying to convince someone to protest a new law.  You might write either of the following sentences: