Step One: Brainstorm
You may use a web, boxes, the circle diagram or any other graphic organizer that will help you get your ideas onto paper.
Step Two: Outline
Highlight the following and
Main Idea: Your main idea will be in red
Supporting Detail (Fact): Your supporting detail will be in blue
Supporting Detail (Fact): Your supporting detail will be in blue
Supporting Detail (Fact): Your supporting detail will be in blue
Supporting Detail (Fact): Your supporting detail will be in blue
Step Three: Use complete sentences. Make sure that each sentence in your outline is a complete sentence.
1. Erase the words "main idea" and "supporting details" from your outline.
2. Check that each sentence has a capital letter.
3. Check that each sentence has a punctuation mark.
4. Check that each sentence is at least five words.
5. Find at least two short sentences that can become a compound sentence.
Step Four: Create your paragraph.
Attach each of the sentences and indent the first sentence of the paragraph.
Step Five: Add transition words.
Try and use better transition words than simply "first" and "second" or also.
Step Six: Improve the word choice.
Use the highlighter to highlight three bland words. Go to an online thesaurus and choose higher-level words to improve the word choice of your paragraph.
Step Seven: Edit for mechanics.
1. Make sure it is in the same verb tense (i.e. past or present), the correct person (first, second or third) and that there is correct verb-subject agreement when using plural nouns.
2. Make sure that there is correct punctuation.
3. Use the spell-check to fix any misspelled words (underlined in red).
