Many students immediately panic when they are faced with the task of writing an .
While they may have many ideas when they discuss a topic, picking up pen and .
paper seems to dry up all ideas. Some students aren't even sure what an essay is. .
Basically, an essay is an organized way to express an opinion and prove that it is valid. .
This can take a variety of forms, but the standard format starts with an introduction, has a .
body, and ends with a conclusion. There are a few simple steps to writing an essay.
First students must generate ideas. They have to think about what they know .
about a topic and what they want to write. Students do this in different ways. Some .
students brainstorm. That is, they sit with a piece of paper and write words and try to .
relate them to other words. Some students just make a list of ideas. Other students find .
they need to do some prewriting because they think better when they are writing out their .
ideas. Some students just sit and think and get their ideas sorted out in their mind. One .
way is not better than another way. Everyone is different, so everyone writes in a .
different way. For example, my friend Christine likes to do prewriting. She sets a timer .
for 30 minutes and then she writes everything she can think of about the topic for that .
time. When the buzzer goes off, she stops and looks at what she has written. She .
underlines the ideas that she thinks are good. This works very well for her, but it doesn't .
work well for me at all because I hate to do prewriting. I just sit and think about what I .
want to write until an idea comes to me. The important thing is not the method but the .
results. Sometimes, students think that their ideas have to be perfect from the beginning .
but this isn't true. Sometimes they might find that their ideas need revision or that some .
can be eliminated. That's okay. Once they have generated ideas, they have a starting .
