Paragraph: Graphic Organization and Outline
Explanation
and walkthrough
Follow the directions
below to create a basic, explanatory paragraph.
For our Foundations of English class, you will
create a basic paragraph in multiple stages.
These stages are based on the Writing Process. These stages can be used for creating any
form of writing. For our purposes, we
will be creating a 5-20 sentence paragraph consisting of 200-400 words.
Stages:
·
Choosing
a topic.
·
Identifying
a Topic Sentence (what your focus will be)
·
Identifying
3 or 4 supporting ideas to help explain and develop the Topic Sentence.
·
Creating
a Graphic Organizer to visually organize your ideas on the topic.
·
Elaborating
on the content by moving the content from the Graphic Organizer into a Full
Sentence Outline.
·
Creating
a Closing Sentence (that reflects back to the Topic Sentence and wraps the
paragraph up).
·
Creating
a First Draft.
·
Revising
the paragraph.
·
Editing
the paragraph.
·
Submitting
the writing for tutor review.
·
Double checking
the writing guidelines, assignment directions, and grading rubric.
CHOOSING A TOPIC
To choose a topic, you need to read and understand
your writing assignment clearly. What is
your instructor hoping you will create?
Why? What are you going to ‘show’
your instructor that you can do? How long does it need to be? These are very
important concepts to understand before you decide on your topic for your
writing.
Let’s say your instructor wants you to explain the
best decision you’ve made in the last 3 years.
You decide that you will write about how/why your decision to begin
online classes was the best one you’ve made in 3 years. (You may not write
about this topic since it is being explained here.)
Notify your instructor of your chosen topic if
required. You might tweak this a little bit as you work through the stages of
the writing process, but overall, the writing should stay focused on this topic
throughout.
IDENTIFY THE TOPIC SENTENCE
For this topic, the student chose to write…
Going to online college was the best decision I made
in the last three years.
IDENTIFYING 3 OR 4 SUPPORTING
POINTS
Three reasons going to school online was a great
decision was due to
· money
· schedule
· attention
CREATING A GRAPHIC ORGANIZER
Your instructor may have a few different Graphic Organizers
you can choose from to help gather your ideas.
The organizer below is a common one.
As you can see, complete sentences are not required at this stage. You simply need to be clear as to how all of
these details relate to the 3 supporting points for your topic sentence.
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CREATING A FULL-SENTENCE OUTLINE
As you work on the Outline, be sure to take the ideas
from your Graphic Organizer and flesh them out into full sentences that clearly
convey the details for each point. Make sure that as you do this you are adding
in keywords that help the reader understand every point and detail clearly.
Topic: Choosing to take college courses online instead of in
person has been the best decision I have made in years.
The First Main Point: By taking college classes online,
I save money.
Support for the First Main Point: Since the
classes are online, I only need Internet and a computer to complete my
coursework. If I was going to a brick
and mortar classroom setting, I would need clean clothes, transportation, gas,
and I would still need Internet and a computer.
Having the whole classroom online saves me money.
The Second Main Point: By taking
college classes online, I can plan my learning time around my family and work schedule.
Support for the Second Main Point: Being that I
work full time, have a wife and two children, and I have obligations beyond
that, online classes make it so that I can pepper my classroom reading,
lessons, and assignments in between all of my life’s packed obligations. I have had to give up some of my personal
play time to attend college, but that would have had to happen whether I was
online or in person. By not having to
drive to and from campus, though, I have a little time left for personal
endeavors once or twice a week. With
online classes, I simply organize my new schoolwork into my home and work life.
The Third Main Point: Finally, by taking college
classes online, I feel as if I
get personalized attention.
Support for the Third Main Point: In the past,
whether in K-12 or college courses, I felt as if the instructors did not notice
me. I felt as if I got lost in the sea
of faces in the classroom. Online
classes offer me direct access to the professor anytime of the day or
night. I do not feel awkward asking for
assistance since no one is watching and listening to me. Furthermore, the professor’s notes and
instructions are always available, and this makes it so that it feels as if the
instructor is talking directly to me.
Concluding sentence: In the end, deciding to attend
online college classes has been the most beneficial decision in my life in a long time since it saves me money, lets me arrange
my time commitments, and it gives me personalized attention along the way.
CREATING A CLOSING SENTENCE
In the Outline, you are developing a clearer picture
of what you briefly sketched in the Graphic Organizer. However, there is one thing that the Outline
has that the Organizer did not, a closing sentence.
As you can see above, you will need to create a
closing sentence in the Outline assignment.
To do this, you will want to look back at your topic sentence and think
about how you can create a single sentence that covers this idea and the main points
of the paragraph. The closing sentence and the topic sentence work together;
however, they are not the same. They
should have similar ideas but not be a direct restatement of each other. The topic sentence will often be shorter than
the closing sentence.
CREATING THE FIRST DRAFT of your
PARAGRAPH
To create your first draft, you will take all of the
ideas from the Outline, remove them from the boxes, and place them in the
format associated with a paragraph. When you get all of these sentences
together into a paragraph, you will want to read them to see if there are any
quick modifications you can make to help it read better or smoother. Remember, though, this is the first
draft. You will be working on this for a
little while more, and so you will have to make revision and editing changes
later.
Choosing to take college courses online instead of in person has
been the best decision I have made in years. By taking college classes online, I
save money. Since the classes are online, I only need Internet and a computer
to complete my coursework. If I was
going to a brick and mortar classroom setting, I would need clean clothes, transportation,
gas, and I would still need Internet and a computer. Therefore, having the whole classroom online
saves me money. Also, by taking college classes online, I can plan my learning
time around my family and work schedule. Being that I work full time, have a
wife and two children, and I have obligations beyond that, online classes make
it so that I can pepper my classroom reading, lessons, and assignments in
between all of my life’s packed obligations.
I knew that I would have to give up some of my personal play time to
attend college, but that would have had to happen whether I was online or in
person. However, by not having to drive
to and from campus, I have a little extra time for personal endeavors once or
twice a week. In this way, with online
classes, I simply organize my new schoolwork into my home and work life. There
is no extra driving and loss of time. Finally,
by taking college classes online, I feel as if I get personalized
attention. In the past, whether in K-12
or college courses, I felt as if the instructors did not notice me. I felt as if I got lost in the sea of faces
in the classroom. Online classes offer
me direct access to the professor anytime of the day or night through email. I do not feel awkward asking for assistance
since no one is watching and listening to me.
Furthermore, the professor’s notes and instructions are always
available, and this makes it so that it feels as if the instructor is talking
directly to me. In the end, deciding to attend online college
classes has been the most beneficial decision in my life in a long time since
it saves me money, lets me arrange my time commitments, and it gives me
personalized attention along the way. (372 words)
REVISION AND EDITING OF THE PARAGRAPH
Once you create the first draft, you will want to
share it with people to get their insights on how clear it is. Can they understand it? Does every sentence make sense? Does one idea flow into the next with logical
transitions?
If you look back and compare the Outline to the
First Draft, you will see that some things were modified as the writer put it
all together. Additional transition
words were added, and a few clarifying terms were added as well. This type of modification is common as you
make the first draft. However, now comes
the time for the revision and editing stages.
Revision is where you go through and look at each
sentence for conciseness, clarity, parallelism, transition words, and other
aspects that help with the overall meaning of the writing.
Editing is where you go through and fix subject/verb
agreement issues, pronoun number agreement problems, internal punctuation (pay
close attention to comma usage and sentence structure), and other items that
distract from the correct grammar, punctuation, and style of the paragraph.
Even though Revision and Editing are sometimes done
at the same time, you really need to pay attention to correcting both types of
issues separately. By looking at the
paragraph for these different types of issues, you will end up with a better
polished final product.
SUBMITTING FOR PEER REVIEW OR TUTOR
REVIEW
Once you have Revised and Edited your work, your
instructor may tell you to post your writing to the school’s writing center or
to the classroom for your classmates to comment and reflect upon. Even if these two locations are not required,
it is highly suggested that you take the opportunity to submit your work to the
school’s writing center or tutor center before you submit it for review and a
score from your professor. Even though
the person who reviews your writing is not going to know exactly what your professor
is looking for, he/she can help identify some revision or editing issues you
may want to focus on and change before moving forward with your assignment
submission.
Take advantage of getting a second and third opinion
on your draft well before it is due so you have time to keep working on modifications. You should never leave your writing
assignment until the last day it is due to complete it. You will notice a significant drop in your
overall score if you do not take the time to pace yourself and make necessary
Revision and Editing changes well before it is due.
If you have any questions along the way, be sure to
contact your professor. He/she is the
one who is looking to see that you have a specific skill. Showing your skill is what earns you high
scores in the class. Be sure to ask your
instructor for any additional guidance well before the writing is due.
REVIEW THE GRADING RUBRIC
Most professors will have a preset grading rubric
for the work you will submit. Do not overlook
this item. It is a great way to know
exactly what your professor will be looking for when he/she begins to review and
score your work. Look at each section of
the rubric. Focus on what would earn you
the highest score, and make sure that your writing includes or shows that
writing skill.
In the image below, you can see that the items in the far left (listed as advanced) are what will earn the students the highest points. Therefore, students will want to review their writing to make sure that it has those characteristics before submitting it for a grade.
