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Ultimate guide to writing a five paragraph essay.

Are you struggling with writing essays? Do you find yourself lost in a sea of ideas, unable to structure your thoughts cohesively? The five paragraph essay is a tried-and-true method that can guide you through the writing process with ease. By mastering this format, you can unlock the key to successful and organized writing.

In this article, we will break down the five paragraph essay into easy steps that anyone can follow. From crafting a strong thesis statement to effectively supporting your arguments, we will cover all the essential components of a well-written essay. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned writer, these tips will help you hone your skills and express your ideas clearly.

Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering the Five Paragraph Essay

Writing a successful five paragraph essay can seem like a daunting task, but with the right approach and strategies, it can become much more manageable. Follow these steps to master the art of writing a powerful five paragraph essay:

• Understand the structure: The five paragraph essay consists of an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Each paragraph serves a specific purpose in conveying your message effectively.
• Brainstorm and plan: Before you start writing, take the time to brainstorm ideas and create an outline. This will help you organize your thoughts and ensure that your essay flows smoothly.
• Write the introduction: Start your essay with a strong hook to grab the reader’s attention. Your introduction should also include a thesis statement, which is the main argument of your essay.
• Develop the body paragraphs: Each body paragraph should focus on a single point that supports your thesis. Use evidence, examples, and analysis to strengthen your argument and make your points clear.
• Conclude effectively: In your conclusion, summarize your main points and restate your thesis in a new way. Leave the reader with a thought-provoking statement or a call to action.

By following these steps and practicing regularly, you can become proficient in writing five paragraph essays that are clear, coherent, and impactful. Remember to revise and edit your work for grammar, punctuation, and clarity to ensure that your essay is polished and professional.

Understanding the Structure of a Five Paragraph Essay

When writing a five paragraph essay, it is important to understand the basic structure that makes up this type of essay. The five paragraph essay consists of an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Introduction: The introduction is the first paragraph of the essay and sets the tone for the rest of the piece. It should include a hook to grab the reader’s attention, a thesis statement that presents the main idea of the essay, and a brief overview of what will be discussed in the body paragraphs.

Body Paragraphs: The body paragraphs make up the core of the essay and each paragraph should focus on a single point that supports the thesis statement. These paragraphs should include a topic sentence that introduces the main idea, supporting details or evidence, and explanations or analysis of how the evidence supports the thesis.

Conclusion: The conclusion is the final paragraph of the essay and it should summarize the main points discussed in the body paragraphs. It should restate the thesis in different words, and provide a closing thought or reflection on the topic.

By understanding the structure of a five paragraph essay, writers can effectively organize their thoughts and present their ideas in a clear and coherent manner.

Choosing a Strong Thesis Statement

One of the most critical elements of a successful five-paragraph essay is a strong thesis statement. Your thesis statement should clearly and concisely present the main argument or point you will be making in your essay. It serves as the foundation for the entire essay, guiding the reader on what to expect and helping you stay focused throughout your writing.

When choosing a thesis statement, it’s important to make sure it is specific, debatable, and relevant to your topic. Avoid vague statements or generalizations, as they will weaken your argument and fail to provide a clear direction for your essay. Instead, choose a thesis statement that is narrow enough to be effectively supported within the confines of a five-paragraph essay, but broad enough to allow for meaningful discussion.

By choosing a strong thesis statement, you set yourself up for a successful essay that is well-organized, coherent, and persuasive. Take the time to carefully craft your thesis statement, as it will serve as the guiding force behind your entire essay.

Developing Supporting Arguments in Body Paragraphs

When crafting the body paragraphs of your five paragraph essay, it is crucial to develop strong and coherent supporting arguments that back up your thesis statement. Each body paragraph should focus on a single supporting argument that contributes to the overall discussion of your topic.

To effectively develop your supporting arguments, consider using a table to organize your ideas. Start by listing your main argument in the left column, and then provide evidence, examples, and analysis in the right column. This structured approach can help you ensure that each supporting argument is fully developed and logically presented.

Additionally, be sure to use transitional phrases to smoothly connect your supporting arguments within and between paragraphs. Words like “furthermore,” “in addition,” and “on the other hand” can help readers follow your train of thought and understand the progression of your ideas.

Remember, the body paragraphs are where you provide the meat of your argument, so take the time to develop each supporting argument thoroughly and clearly. By presenting compelling evidence and analysis, you can effectively persuade your readers and strengthen the overall impact of your essay.

Polishing Your Writing: Editing and Proofreading Tips

Editing and proofreading are crucial steps in the writing process that can make a significant difference in the clarity and effectiveness of your essay. Here are some tips to help you polish your writing:

1. Take a break before editing: After you finish writing your essay, take a break before starting the editing process. This will help you approach your work with fresh eyes and catch mistakes more easily.

2. Read your essay aloud: Reading your essay aloud can help you identify awkward phrasing, grammar errors, and inconsistencies. This technique can also help you evaluate the flow and coherence of your writing.

3. Use a spelling and grammar checker: Utilize spelling and grammar checkers available in word processing software to catch common errors. However, be mindful that these tools may not catch all mistakes, so it’s essential to manually review your essay as well.

4. Check for coherence and organization: Make sure your ideas flow logically and cohesively throughout your essay. Ensure that each paragraph connects smoothly to the next, and that your arguments are supported by relevant evidence.

5. Look for consistency: Check for consistency in your writing style, tone, and formatting. Ensure that you maintain a consistent voice and perspective throughout your essay to keep your argument coherent.

6. Seek feedback from others: Consider asking a peer, teacher, or tutor to review your essay and provide feedback. External perspectives can help you identify blind spots and areas for improvement in your writing.

7. Proofread carefully: Finally, proofread your essay carefully to catch any remaining errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation, and formatting. Pay attention to details and make any necessary revisions before submitting your final draft.

By following these editing and proofreading tips, you can refine your writing and ensure that your essay is polished and ready for submission.

Tips for Successful Writing: Practice and Feedback

Writing is a skill that improves with practice. The more you write, the better you will become. Set aside time each day to practice writing essays, paragraph by paragraph. This consistent practice will help you develop your writing skills and grow more confident in expressing your ideas.

Seek feedback from your teachers, peers, or mentors. Constructive criticism can help you identify areas for improvement and provide valuable insights into your writing. Take their suggestions into consideration and use them to refine your writing style and structure.

• Set writing goals for yourself and track your progress. Whether it’s completing a certain number of essays in a week or improving your introductions, having specific goals will keep you motivated and focused on your writing development.
• Read widely to expand your vocabulary and expose yourself to different writing styles. The more you read, the more you will learn about effective writing techniques and ways to engage your readers.
• Revise and edit your essays carefully. Pay attention to sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and spelling. A well-polished essay will demonstrate your attention to detail and dedication to producing high-quality work.

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8 David Foster Wallace Essays You Can Read Online

If you've talked to me for more than five minutes, you probably know that I'm a huge fan of author and essayist David Foster Wallace . In my opinion, he's one of the most fascinating writers and thinkers that has ever lived, and he possessed an almost supernatural ability to articulate the human experience.

Listen, you don't have to be a pretentious white dude to fall for DFW. I know that stigma is out there, but it's just not true. David Foster Wallace's writing will appeal to anyone who likes to think deeply about the human experience. He really likes to dig into the meat of a moment — from describing state fair roller coaster rides to examining the mind of a detoxing addict. His explorations of the human consciousness are incredibly astute, and I've always felt as thought DFW was actually mapping out my own consciousness.

Contrary to what some may think, the way to become a DFW fan is not to immediately read Infinite Jest . I love Infinite Jest. It's one of my favorite books of all-time. But it is also over 1,000 pages long and extremely difficult to read. It took me seven months to read it for the first time. That's a lot to ask of yourself as a reader.

My recommendation is to start with David Foster Wallace's essays . They are pure gold. I discovered DFW when I was in college, and I would spend hours skiving off my homework to read anything I could get my hands on. Most of what I read I got for free on the Internet.

So, here's your guide to David Foster Wallace on the web. Once you've blown through these, pick up a copy of Consider the Lobster or A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again .

1. "This is Water" Commencement Speech

Technically this is a speech, but it will seriously revolutionize the way you think about the world and how you interact with it. You can listen to Wallace deliver it at Kenyon College , or you can read this transcript . Or, hey, do both.

2. "Consider the Lobster"

This is a classic. When he goes to the Maine Lobster Festival to do a report for Gourmet , DFW ends up taking his readers along for a deep, cerebral ride. Asking questions like "Do lobsters feel pain?" Wallace turns the whole celebration into a profound breakdown on the meaning of consciousness. (Don't forget to read the footnotes!)

2. "Ticket to the Fair"

Another episode of Wallace turning journalism into something more. Harper 's sent DFW to report on the state fair, and he emerged with this masterpiece. The Harper's subtitle says it all: "Wherein our reporter gorges himself on corn dogs, gapes at terrifying rides, savors the odor of pigs, exchanges unpleasantries with tattooed carnies, and admires the loveliness of cows."

3. "Federer as Religious Experience"

DFW was obviously obsessed with tennis, but you don't have to like or know anything about the sport to be drawn in by his writing. In this essay, originally published in the sports section of The New York Times , Wallace delivers a profile on Roger Federer that soon turns into a discussion of beauty with regard to athleticism. It's hypnotizing to read.

4. "Shipping Out: On the (nearly lethal) comforts of a luxury cruise"

Later published as "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" in the collection of the same name, this essay is the result of Harper's sending Wallace on a luxury cruise. Wallace describes how the cruise sends him into a depressive spiral, detailing the oddities that make up the strange atmosphere of an environment designed for ultimate "fun."

5. "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction"

This is definitely in the running for my favorite DFW essay. (It's so hard to choose.) Fiction writers! Television! Voyeurism! Loneliness! Basically everything I love comes together in this piece as Wallace dives into a deep exploration of how humans find ways to look at each other. Though it's a little long, it's endlessly fascinating.

6. "String Theory"

"You are invited to try to imagine what it would be like to be among the hundred best in the world at something. At anything. I have tried to imagine; it's hard."

Originally published in Esquire , this article takes you deep into the intricate world of professional tennis. Wallace uses tennis (and specifically tennis player Michael Joyce) as a vehicle to explore the ideas of success, identity, and what it means to be a professional athlete.

7. "9/11: The View from the Midwest"

Written in the days following 9/11, this article details DFW and his community's struggle to come to terms with the attack.

8. "Tense Present: Democracy, English, and the Wars Over Usage "

If you're a language nerd like me, you'll really dig this one. A self-proclaimed "snoot" about grammar, Wallace dives into the world of dictionaries, exploring all of the implications of how language is used, how we understand and define grammar, and how the "Democratic Spirit" fits into the tumultuous realms of English.

Images: cocoparisienne /Pixabay; werner22brigette /Pixabay; StartupStockPhotos /Pixabay; PublicDomainPIctures /Pixabay

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Paragraphs & topic sentences.

A paragraph is a series of sentences that are organized and coherent, and are all related to a single topic. Almost every piece of writing you do that is longer than a few sentences should be organized into paragraphs. This is because paragraphs show a reader where the subdivisions of an essay begin and end, and thus help the reader see the organization of the essay and grasp its main points.

Paragraphs can contain many different kinds of information. A paragraph could contain a series of brief examples or a single long illustration of a general point. It might describe a place, character, or process; narrate a series of events; compare or contrast two or more things; classify items into categories; or describe causes and effects. Regardless of the kind of information they contain, all paragraphs share certain characteristics. One of the most important of these is a topic sentence.

TOPIC SENTENCES

A well-organized paragraph supports or develops a single controlling idea, which is expressed in a sentence called the topic sentence. A topic sentence has several important functions: it substantiates or supports an essay’s thesis statement; it unifies the content of a paragraph and directs the order of the sentences; and it advises the reader of the subject to be discussed and how the paragraph will discuss it. Readers generally look to the first few sentences in a paragraph to determine the subject and perspective of the paragraph. That’s why it’s often best to put the topic sentence at the very beginning of the paragraph. In some cases, however, it’s more effective to place another sentence before the topic sentence—for example, a sentence linking the current paragraph to the previous one, or one providing background information.

Although most paragraphs should have a topic sentence, there are a few situations when a paragraph might not need a topic sentence. For example, you might be able to omit a topic sentence in a paragraph that narrates a series of events, if a paragraph continues developing an idea that you introduced (with a topic sentence) in the previous paragraph, or if all the sentences and details in a paragraph clearly refer—perhaps indirectly—to a main point. The vast majority of your paragraphs, however, should have a topic sentence.

PARAGRAPH STRUCTURE

Most paragraphs in an essay have a three-part structure—introduction, body, and conclusion. You can see this structure in paragraphs whether they are narrating, describing, comparing, contrasting, or analyzing information. Each part of the paragraph plays an important role in communicating your meaning to your reader.

Introduction : the first section of a paragraph; should include the topic sentence and any other sentences at the beginning of the paragraph that give background information or provide a transition.

Body : follows the introduction; discusses the controlling idea, using facts, arguments, analysis, examples, and other information.

Conclusion : the final section; summarizes the connections between the information discussed in the body of the paragraph and the paragraph’s controlling idea.

The following paragraph illustrates this pattern of organization. In this paragraph the topic sentence and concluding sentence (CAPITALIZED) both help the reader keep the paragraph’s main point in mind.

SCIENTISTS HAVE LEARNED TO SUPPLEMENT THE SENSE OF SIGHT IN NUMEROUS WAYS. In front of the tiny pupil of the eye they put , on Mount Palomar, a great monocle 200 inches in diameter, and with it see 2000 times farther into the depths of space. Or they look through a small pair of lenses arranged as a microscope into a drop of water or blood, and magnify by as much as 2000 diameters the living creatures there, many of which are among man’s most dangerous enemies. Or , if we want to see distant happenings on earth, they use some of the previously wasted electromagnetic waves to carry television images which they re-create as light by whipping tiny crystals on a screen with electrons in a vacuum. Or they can bring happenings of long ago and far away as colored motion pictures, by arranging silver atoms and color-absorbing molecules to force light waves into the patterns of original reality. Or if we want to see into the center of a steel casting or the chest of an injured child, they send the information on a beam of penetrating short-wave X rays, and then convert it back into images we can see on a screen or photograph. THUS ALMOST EVERY TYPE OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION YET DISCOVERED HAS BEEN USED TO EXTEND OUR SENSE OF SIGHT IN SOME WAY. George Harrison, “Faith and the Scientist”

In a coherent paragraph, each sentence relates clearly to the topic sentence or controlling idea, but there is more to coherence than this. If a paragraph is coherent, each sentence flows smoothly into the next without obvious shifts or jumps. A coherent paragraph also highlights the ties between old information and new information to make the structure of ideas or arguments clear to the reader.

Along with the smooth flow of sentences, a paragraph’s coherence may also be related to its length. If you have written a very long paragraph, one that fills a double-spaced typed page, for example, you should check it carefully to see if it should start a new paragraph where the original paragraph wanders from its controlling idea. On the other hand, if a paragraph is very short (only one or two sentences, perhaps), you may need to develop its controlling idea more thoroughly, or combine it with another paragraph.

A number of other techniques that you can use to establish coherence in paragraphs are described below.

Repeat key words or phrases. Particularly in paragraphs in which you define or identify an important idea or theory, be consistent in how you refer to it. This consistency and repetition will bind the paragraph together and help your reader understand your definition or description.

Create parallel structures. Parallel structures are created by constructing two or more phrases or sentences that have the same grammatical structure and use the same parts of speech. By creating parallel structures you make your sentences clearer and easier to read. In addition, repeating a pattern in a series of consecutive sentences helps your reader see the connections between ideas. In the paragraph above about scientists and the sense of sight, several sentences in the body of the paragraph have been constructed in a parallel way. The parallel structures (which have been emphasized ) help the reader see that the paragraph is organized as a set of examples of a general statement.

Be consistent in point of view, verb tense, and number. Consistency in point of view, verb tense, and number is a subtle but important aspect of coherence. If you shift from the more personal "you" to the impersonal “one,” from past to present tense, or from “a man” to “they,” for example, you make your paragraph less coherent. Such inconsistencies can also confuse your reader and make your argument more difficult to follow.

Use transition words or phrases between sentences and between paragraphs. Transitional expressions emphasize the relationships between ideas, so they help readers follow your train of thought or see connections that they might otherwise miss or misunderstand. The following paragraph shows how carefully chosen transitions (CAPITALIZED) lead the reader smoothly from the introduction to the conclusion of the paragraph.

I don’t wish to deny that the flattened, minuscule head of the large-bodied "stegosaurus" houses little brain from our subjective, top-heavy perspective, BUT I do wish to assert that we should not expect more of the beast. FIRST OF ALL, large animals have relatively smaller brains than related, small animals. The correlation of brain size with body size among kindred animals (all reptiles, all mammals, FOR EXAMPLE) is remarkably regular. AS we move from small to large animals, from mice to elephants or small lizards to Komodo dragons, brain size increases, BUT not so fast as body size. IN OTHER WORDS, bodies grow faster than brains, AND large animals have low ratios of brain weight to body weight. IN FACT, brains grow only about two-thirds as fast as bodies. SINCE we have no reason to believe that large animals are consistently stupider than their smaller relatives, we must conclude that large animals require relatively less brain to do as well as smaller animals. IF we do not recognize this relationship, we are likely to underestimate the mental power of very large animals, dinosaurs in particular. Stephen Jay Gould, “Were Dinosaurs Dumb?”

SOME USEFUL TRANSITIONS

(modified from Diana Hacker, A Writer’s Reference )

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The Writing Process | 5 Steps with Examples & Tips

Published on April 24, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on December 8, 2023.

Good academic writing requires effective planning, drafting, and revision.

The writing process looks different for everyone, but there are five basic steps that will help you structure your time when writing any kind of text.

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Table of contents

Step 1: prewriting, step 2: planning and outlining, step 3: writing a first draft, step 4: redrafting and revising, step 5: editing and proofreading, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about the writing process.

Before you start writing, you need to decide exactly what you’ll write about and do the necessary research.

Coming up with a topic

If you have to come up with your own topic for an assignment, think of what you’ve covered in class— is there a particular area that intrigued, interested, or even confused you? Topics that left you with additional questions are perfect, as these are questions you can explore in your writing.

The scope depends on what type of text you’re writing—for example, an essay or a research paper will be less in-depth than a dissertation topic . Don’t pick anything too ambitious to cover within the word count, or too limited for you to find much to say.

Narrow down your idea to a specific argument or question. For example, an appropriate topic for an essay might be narrowed down like this:

Doing the research

Once you know your topic, it’s time to search for relevant sources and gather the information you need. This process varies according to your field of study and the scope of the assignment. It might involve:

• Searching for primary and secondary sources .
• Reading the relevant texts closely (e.g. for literary analysis ).
• Collecting data using relevant research methods (e.g. experiments , interviews or surveys )

From a writing perspective, the important thing is to take plenty of notes while you do the research. Keep track of the titles, authors, publication dates, and relevant quotations from your sources; the data you gathered; and your initial analysis or interpretation of the questions you’re addressing.

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Especially in academic writing , it’s important to use a logical structure to convey information effectively. It’s far better to plan this out in advance than to try to work out your structure once you’ve already begun writing.

Creating an essay outline is a useful way to plan out your structure before you start writing. This should help you work out the main ideas you want to focus on and how you’ll organize them. The outline doesn’t have to be final—it’s okay if your structure changes throughout the writing process.

Use bullet points or numbering to make your structure clear at a glance. Even for a short text that won’t use headings, it’s useful to summarize what you’ll discuss in each paragraph.

An outline for a literary analysis essay might look something like this:

• Describe the theatricality of Austen’s works
• Outline the role theater plays in Mansfield Park
• Introduce the research question: How does Austen use theater to express the characters’ morality in Mansfield Park ?
• Discuss Austen’s depiction of the performance at the end of the first volume
• Discuss how Sir Bertram reacts to the acting scheme
• Introduce Austen’s use of stage direction–like details during dialogue
• Explore how these are deployed to show the characters’ self-absorption
• Discuss Austen’s description of Maria and Julia’s relationship as polite but affectionless
• Compare Mrs. Norris’s self-conceit as charitable despite her idleness
• Summarize the three themes: The acting scheme, stage directions, and the performance of morals
• Answer the research question
• Indicate areas for further study

Once you have a clear idea of your structure, it’s time to produce a full first draft.

This process can be quite non-linear. For example, it’s reasonable to begin writing with the main body of the text, saving the introduction for later once you have a clearer idea of the text you’re introducing.

To give structure to your writing, use your outline as a framework. Make sure that each paragraph has a clear central focus that relates to your overall argument.

Hover over the parts of the example, from a literary analysis essay on Mansfield Park , to see how a paragraph is constructed.

The character of Mrs. Norris provides another example of the performance of morals in Mansfield Park . Early in the novel, she is described in scathing terms as one who knows “how to dictate liberality to others: but her love of money was equal to her love of directing” (p. 7). This hypocrisy does not interfere with her self-conceit as “the most liberal-minded sister and aunt in the world” (p. 7). Mrs. Norris is strongly concerned with appearing charitable, but unwilling to make any personal sacrifices to accomplish this. Instead, she stage-manages the charitable actions of others, never acknowledging that her schemes do not put her own time or money on the line. In this way, Austen again shows us a character whose morally upright behavior is fundamentally a performance—for whom the goal of doing good is less important than the goal of seeming good.

When you move onto a different topic, start a new paragraph. Use appropriate transition words and phrases to show the connections between your ideas.

The goal at this stage is to get a draft completed, not to make everything perfect as you go along. Once you have a full draft in front of you, you’ll have a clearer idea of where improvement is needed.

Give yourself a first draft deadline that leaves you a reasonable length of time to revise, edit, and proofread before the final deadline. For a longer text like a dissertation, you and your supervisor might agree on deadlines for individual chapters.

Now it’s time to look critically at your first draft and find potential areas for improvement. Redrafting means substantially adding or removing content, while revising involves making changes to structure and reformulating arguments.

Evaluating the first draft

It can be difficult to look objectively at your own writing. Your perspective might be positively or negatively biased—especially if you try to assess your work shortly after finishing it.

It’s best to leave your work alone for at least a day or two after completing the first draft. Come back after a break to evaluate it with fresh eyes; you’ll spot things you wouldn’t have otherwise.

When evaluating your writing at this stage, you’re mainly looking for larger issues such as changes to your arguments or structure. Starting with bigger concerns saves you time—there’s no point perfecting the grammar of something you end up cutting out anyway.

Right now, you’re looking for:

• Arguments that are unclear or illogical.
• Areas where information would be better presented in a different order.
• Passages where additional information or explanation is needed.
• Passages that are irrelevant to your overall argument.

For example, in our paper on Mansfield Park , we might realize the argument would be stronger with more direct consideration of the protagonist Fanny Price, and decide to try to find space for this in paragraph IV.

For some assignments, you’ll receive feedback on your first draft from a supervisor or peer. Be sure to pay close attention to what they tell you, as their advice will usually give you a clearer sense of which aspects of your text need improvement.

Redrafting and revising

Once you’ve decided where changes are needed, make the big changes first, as these are likely to have knock-on effects on the rest. Depending on what your text needs, this step might involve:

• Making changes to your overall argument.
• Reordering the text.
• Cutting parts of the text.
• Adding new text.

You can go back and forth between writing, redrafting and revising several times until you have a final draft that you’re happy with.

Think about what changes you can realistically accomplish in the time you have. If you are running low on time, you don’t want to leave your text in a messy state halfway through redrafting, so make sure to prioritize the most important changes.

Editing focuses on local concerns like clarity and sentence structure. Proofreading involves reading the text closely to remove typos and ensure stylistic consistency. You can check all your drafts and texts in minutes with an AI proofreader .

Editing for grammar and clarity

When editing, you want to ensure your text is clear, concise, and grammatically correct. You’re looking out for:

• Grammatical errors.
• Ambiguous phrasings.
• Redundancy and repetition .

In your initial draft, it’s common to end up with a lot of sentences that are poorly formulated. Look critically at where your meaning could be conveyed in a more effective way or in fewer words, and watch out for common sentence structure mistakes like run-on sentences and sentence fragments:

• Austen’s style is frequently humorous, her characters are often described as “witty.” Although this is less true of Mansfield Park .
• Austen’s style is frequently humorous. Her characters are often described as “witty,” although this is less true of Mansfield Park .

To make your sentences run smoothly, you can always use a paraphrasing tool to rewrite them in a clearer way.

Proofreading for small mistakes and typos

When proofreading, first look out for typos in your text:

• Spelling errors.
• Missing words.
• Confused word choices .
• Punctuation errors .
• Missing or excess spaces.

Use a grammar checker , but be sure to do another manual check after. Read through your text line by line, watching out for problem areas highlighted by the software but also for any other issues it might have missed.

For example, in the following phrase we notice several errors:

• Mary Crawfords character is a complicate one and her relationships with Fanny and Edmund undergoes several transformations through out the novel.
• Mary Crawford’s character is a complicated one, and her relationships with both Fanny and Edmund undergo several transformations throughout the novel.

Proofreading for stylistic consistency

There are several issues in academic writing where you can choose between multiple different standards. For example:

• Whether you use the serial comma .
• Whether you use American or British spellings and punctuation (you can use a punctuation checker for this).
• Where you use numerals vs. words for numbers.
• How you capitalize your titles and headings.

Unless you’re given specific guidance on these issues, it’s your choice which standards you follow. The important thing is to consistently follow one standard for each issue. For example, don’t use a mixture of American and British spellings in your paper.

Additionally, you will probably be provided with specific guidelines for issues related to format (how your text is presented on the page) and citations (how you acknowledge your sources). Always follow these instructions carefully.

If you want to know more about AI for academic writing, AI tools, or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
• Post hoc fallacy
• Appeal to authority fallacy
• False cause fallacy
• Sunk cost fallacy
• Deep learning
• Generative AI
• Machine learning
• Reinforcement learning
• Supervised vs. unsupervised learning

 (AI) Tools

• Grammar Checker
• Paraphrasing Tool
• Text Summarizer
• AI Detector
• Plagiarism Checker
• Citation Generator

Revising, proofreading, and editing are different stages of the writing process .

• Revising is making structural and logical changes to your text—reformulating arguments and reordering information.
• Editing refers to making more local changes to things like sentence structure and phrasing to make sure your meaning is conveyed clearly and concisely.
• Proofreading involves looking at the text closely, line by line, to spot any typos and issues with consistency and correct them.

Whether you’re publishing a blog, submitting a research paper , or even just writing an important email, there are a few techniques you can use to make sure it’s error-free:

• Take a break : Set your work aside for at least a few hours so that you can look at it with fresh eyes.
• Proofread a printout : Staring at a screen for too long can cause fatigue – sit down with a pen and paper to check the final version.
• Use digital shortcuts : Take note of any recurring mistakes (for example, misspelling a particular word, switching between US and UK English , or inconsistently capitalizing a term), and use Find and Replace to fix it throughout the document.

If you want to be confident that an important text is error-free, it might be worth choosing a professional proofreading service instead.

If you’ve gone over the word limit set for your assignment, shorten your sentences and cut repetition and redundancy during the editing process. If you use a lot of long quotes , consider shortening them to just the essentials.

If you need to remove a lot of words, you may have to cut certain passages. Remember that everything in the text should be there to support your argument; look for any information that’s not essential to your point and remove it.

To make this process easier and faster, you can use a paraphrasing tool . With this tool, you can rewrite your text to make it simpler and shorter. If that’s not enough, you can copy-paste your paraphrased text into the summarizer . This tool will distill your text to its core message.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Caulfield, J. (2023, December 08). The Writing Process | 5 Steps with Examples & Tips. Scribbr. Retrieved August 7, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/academic-writing/writing-process/

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103 Foster Care Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Foster care is a system that provides temporary care and support to children who are unable to live with their biological parents for various reasons. This system plays a crucial role in ensuring the safety and well-being of vulnerable children, but it also raises important questions and issues that need to be addressed. If you are tasked with writing an essay on foster care, coming up with a compelling topic can be challenging. To help you get started, we have compiled a list of 103 foster care essay topic ideas and examples that you can use for inspiration.

• The history and evolution of foster care in the United States
• The impact of foster care on children's emotional development
• The challenges faced by foster parents in providing care to children
• The role of social workers in the foster care system
• The prevalence of abuse and neglect in the foster care system
• The importance of cultural competence in foster care placements
• The long-term effects of foster care on children's mental health
• The overrepresentation of minority children in the foster care system
• The role of the court system in determining foster care placements
• The impact of trauma on children entering the foster care system
• The benefits of kinship care over traditional foster care placements
• The role of advocacy organizations in improving the foster care system
• The challenges faced by foster care alumni transitioning to adulthood
• The impact of sibling separation in foster care placements
• The effectiveness of therapeutic foster care programs
• The role of education in improving outcomes for children in foster care
• The impact of substance abuse on children entering the foster care system
• The challenges faced by LGBTQ youth in the foster care system
• The role of trauma-informed care in foster care placements
• The impact of the opioid epidemic on foster care placements
• The rights of biological parents in the foster care system
• The role of foster care in preventing child abuse and neglect
• The impact of foster care on children's academic achievement
• The challenges faced by foster care agencies in recruiting and retaining foster parents
• The role of attachment theory in understanding foster care placements
• The impact of foster care on children's self-esteem and self-worth
• The challenges faced by foster care siblings in maintaining connections
• The role of respite care in supporting foster parents
• The impact of trauma on foster care placements
• The challenges faced by children with disabilities in the foster care system
• The role of mental health services in supporting children in foster care
• The impact of foster care on children's relationships with their biological families
• The challenges faced by foster care alumni in accessing housing and employment
• The role of trauma-focused therapy in supporting children in foster care
• The impact of foster care on children's sense of identity and belonging
• The challenges faced by foster care agencies in providing culturally competent care
• The role of foster care in supporting children's emotional and social development
• The impact of foster care on children's attachment styles

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• Use reading techniques such as context and scanning to determine the meanings of unfamiliar words and information
• Identify features of writing such as topic sentences, supporting details, and other organizational features of paragraphs
• Recognize elements of writing such as parts of speech and sentences, simile, metaphor, imagery, inference, bias, and the elements of fiction
• Recognize nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, and other parts of speech
• Identify correct usage of words and parts of a sentence such as plurals, prepositions, and punctuation
• Differentiate between independent and dependent clauses, and identify correct use of sentence structure
• Compose a unified and fully-developed paragraph free of common errors
• Write a three-to-five paragraph factual composition with an introduction, a body, and a conclusion, and a formal business letter on the topic of a complaint
• Comprehend the skills necessary to write an effective essay, such as correct word usage, avoiding run-on sentences, and professional tone
• Write a coherent, well-organized personal essay of between 750 and 2,500 words that is free of spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors

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83 Foster Care Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best foster care topic ideas & essay examples, 🎓 good research topics about foster care, ⭐ simple & easy foster care essay titles, ❓ research questions about the foster care system.

• Foster Care System in the “Antwone Fisher” Film What could be done to improve the foster care system today? The foster system failed Antwone because they shifted him from a foster home he had innocently believed and enjoyed to be his birth family […]
• Youths Transitioning Foster Care System These problems have led to the necessity of occupational therapy in the foster care systems where they enable the young people aging out of foster care to deal with these issues.
• Non-Relative Care Placements for Children in Foster Care Here, the main issues to be addressed are the problems of children who are placed in foster care, the social impact of foster care centers, whether these centers are run as they are supposed, the […]
• New York’s Homeless Children and Foster Care System Foster homes have to also face the challenge of developing the mentalities of the children are their clients, and care should be provided on that basis.
• Foster Care Crisis in Georgia: Children in Substitute Families It decides whether a child is to be placed in foster care or to remain in the home of their caregiver.
• Foster Care of Children With a Different Background The ethical dilemma here was detected later when the social worker was able to contact the child’s mother, who insisted that such behavior was not a sign of anxiety but rather of respect and proper […]
• Healthcare, Human Services and Foster Care in the US Particularly, it is essential to enhance the importance of the caretakers’ role in both the provision of the necessary healthcare assistance to their foster children after the people in question become legal guardians of the […]
• Foster-Care Centers and Public Health Over the past ten years, California spent over $200 million on psychotropic drugs, which is about 70 percent of total foster care drug spending in the US.
• Group Home and Foster Care Forensic Settings The residents of the group home often access treatment through the treatment centers located within the homes. The foster cares are located in areas accessible to the amenities and other resources.
• Attachment Disorder Among Young Children in Foster Care Attachment refers to a deep connection between a child and a primary caregiver that plays an important role in the optimal growth and development of the child with regard to expression of emotions and creation […]
• Foster Care and Adoption Service The role of the human services professional is to understand the behavior and the expectations of each party in the adoption agreement and offer appropriate information to avoid misunderstanding in the future.
• Foster Care in the Criminal Justice System Throughout the history of the United States, the children welfare system has evolved according to shifting values and attitudes about what responsibilities governmental agencies should take in the defence and care of abandoned and abused […]
• African American Extended Families and Kinship Care: How Relevant Is the Foster Care Model for Kinship Care
• Childhood: Foster Care and Young Mothers
• Adoption Subsidies and Placement Outcomes for Children in Foster Care
• Leaving Foster Care: The Influence of Child and Case Characteristics on Foster Care Exit Rates
• Health Outcomes for Adults in Family Foster Care as Children: An Analysis by Ethnicity
• Adopting Children Through the Foster Care System
• Child Protection and Adult Crime: Using Investigator Assignment to Estimate Causal Effects of Foster Care
• Need for Change: The Harmful Effects of the Foster Care System
• Natural Mentoring and Psychosocial Outcomes Among Older Youth Transitioning From Foster Care
• Mental and Emotional Health of Children When Leaving Foster Care
• Cognitive, Educational, and Self-Support Outcomes of Long-Term Foster Care Versus Adoption
• Educational and Employment Outcomes of Adults Formerly Placed in Foster Care
• Trauma Treatments for Among Culturally Diverse Foster Care Youth: Treatment Retention and Outcomes
• Minority Children and Adolescents in Transracial Foster Care
• Balancing Permanency and Stability for Youth in Foster Care
• Risk and Protective Factors for Residential Foster Care Adolescents
• Attachment Theory and Change Processes in Foster Care
• Economics Incentives and Foster Care Placement
• Improved Intelligence, Literacy and Mathematic Skills Following School-Based Intervention for Children in Foster Care
• Foster Care: Protecting Bodies but Killing Minds
• Outcomes for Young Adults Who Experienced Foster Care
• Stability for the Children Leaving the Foster Care System
• Kinship Foster Care: Placement, Service, and Outcome Issues
• Adoption and Family Safety and Foster Care Plan
• New Policy for Getting Therapeutic Foster Care For Children With Mental Illnesses
• Evaluating Housing Programs for Youth Who Age Out of Foster Care
• Adolescent Resilience, Gender, and Foster Care
• Competencies and Problem Behaviors of Children in Family Foster Care: Variations by Kinship Placement Status and Race
• After Parental Rights Are Terminated: Factors Associated With Exiting Foster Care
• Increasing College Access for Youth Aging Out of Foster Care
• Career Readiness Programming for Youth in Foster Care
• Kinship Family Foster Care: A Methodological and Substantive Synthesis of Research
• Child Abuse Prevention and Foster Care
• Foster Care and Adoption as a Tool of Superior Care
• Granting Gay Couples to Adopt Children From Foster Care
• Factors Associated With Reunification: A Longitudinal Analysis of Long-Term Foster Care
• Behavioral Health Needs and Service Use Among Those Who’ve Aged Out of Foster Care
• Differences Between Foster Care and Adoption
• Context Matters: Experimental Evaluation of Home-Based Tutoring for Youth in Foster Care
• Natural Mentoring Among Older Youth in and Aging Out of Foster Care
• What Factors Are Considered for a Child to Be a Candidate for Foster Care?
• Should the Foster Care System Be Reformed?
• What Measures Are Put in Place to Ensure a Child’s Wellbeing in the Foster Care System?
• How Does Foster Care Affect Children?
• Should Race and Culture Matter for Children in Foster Care Place With Adoptive Families?
• What Factors Impact the Educational Outcomes of Children in Foster Care?
• Why Do Children Run Away From Foster Care?
• What Is the Importance of Foster Care on a Child?
• How Long Does It Take for One to Register and to Be Able to Foster a Child?
• Is There Any Support Given to Foster Parents?
• What Is Required for One to Be a Foster Child?
• How Long Can Foster the Same Child?
• What Disqualifies a Person From Fostering?
• In What State Should a Foster Home Be In Before a Minor Comes in to Live There?
• How Is the Safety of a Child Ensured in the Foster Homes?
• What Are the Measures Taken in Cases of Child Abuse in Foster Homes?
• Does One Make Money From Fostering?
• What Are the Risks of Becoming a Foster Parent?
• How Should One Respond to the Problematic Stories Surrounding Struggling Foster Families?
• What Is the Goal of a Foster Care System?
• How Are Kids Impacted by the Trauma They Experienced?
• At What Age Is a Child Involved in Foster Care?
• Can Children With Special Needs Be Involved in Foster Care?
• What Are the Rules and Regulations for Foster Care Parents?
• How Does Foster Care Affect the Child’s Life Stability?
• In What Way Does the System Affect Foster Children?
• What Are the Effects of Foster Children Interacting With Biological Parents?
• How Much Support Should Foster Parents Have?
• What Measures Should Be in Place for Drug Addicts?
• How Fast Is the Foster Care Adoption Process?
• Pedagogy Topics
• Social Development Essay Topics
• Family Titles
• Suffering Essay Topics
• Children’s Rights Research Ideas
• Charity Ideas
• Parenting Styles Titles
• Childcare Research Topics
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2023, January 21). 83 Foster Care Essay Topic Ideas & Examples. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/foster-care-essay-topics/

"83 Foster Care Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." IvyPanda , 21 Jan. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/topic/foster-care-essay-topics/.

IvyPanda . (2023) '83 Foster Care Essay Topic Ideas & Examples'. 21 January.

IvyPanda . 2023. "83 Foster Care Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." January 21, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/foster-care-essay-topics/.

1. IvyPanda . "83 Foster Care Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." January 21, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/foster-care-essay-topics/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "83 Foster Care Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." January 21, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/foster-care-essay-topics/.

How to Write an Effective Paragraph

Paragraphs are meant to make reading a text easier. When a writer composes for school or work purposes, paragraphs help promote the brevity, clarity, and simplicity expected of formal writing. Each new paragraph signals a pause in thought and a change in topic, directing readers to anticipate what is to follow or allowing them a moment to digest the material in the preceding paragraph. Reasons to start a new paragraph include

• beginning a new idea,
• emphasizing a particular point,
• changing speakers in dialogue,
• allowing readers to pause, and
• breaking up lengthy text, usually moving to a subtopic.

Once a writer is satisfied with their paragraph content, they take their readers into consideration. They revise and edit to make their paragraphs both engaging and easy to read. Key considerations for revising and editing paragraphs are length, variety, clarity, and transitions.

PARAGRAPH LENGTH

Effective paragraphs vary in length. Paragraph lengths should invite readers in, neither seeming too daunting nor appearing incomplete. Paragraphs of more than one double-spaced page will appear too dense and too long to be inviting. However, short paragraphs can appear choppy and undeveloped. In fact, one-sentence paragraphs are rarely effective. Not only can a one-sentence paragraph seem abrupt, but it can also leave readers puzzled. A sentence that makes a point about a topic will typically need at least one or even more sentences to illustrate and explain that point.

For complex concepts such as those in persuasive essays that demand detailed explanation and supporting evidence, longer paragraphs are necessary. However, when narrating an example or explaining a process, shorter paragraphs will best emphasize the order of ideas or importance of each step.

SENTENCE VARIETY

Most people have experienced a lecture or presentation given by someone who talks in a monotone. It probably puts the audience to sleep. The equivalent of such monotony in writing occurs when sentences have the same structure and the same length. Once the content of the writing is solid, an experienced writer revises, paying attention to sentence variety. Strong paragraphs contain a variety of sentence structures, sentence types, sentence openings, and sentence lengths.

Sentence Structures

One method for gaining sentence variety is to use all of the below sentence structures in your paper.

1. Simple Sentence = one independent clause with no subordinate clause

Music is life itself (Louis Armstrong).

Independent clause

2. Compound Sentence = two or more independent clauses with no subordinate clauses

One arrow is easily broken , but a bundle of ten can’t be broken .

independent clause, [conjunction] independent clause

3. Complex Sentence = one independent clause with one or more subordinate clauses

If you scatter thorns , don’t go barefoot .

subordinate clause, independent clause

4. Compound-Complex Sentence = at least two independent clauses and at least one subordinate clause

Tell me what you eat , and I will tell you [what you are] .

independent clause, [conjunction] independent clause [subordinate clause]

Sentence Types

Another method for adding variety is to use different sentence types:

• Declarative = makes a statement: The echo always has the last word.
• Imperative = makes a demand: Love your neighbor.
•  Interrogative = asks a question: Are second thoughts always wisest?
•   Exclamatory = makes an exclamation: I want to wash the flag, not burn it!

Declarative sentences will naturally be used the most in academic writing. But imperative and interrogative sentences can make the content stronger and add sentence variety. Exclamatory sentences are used rarely in academic writing and professional writing but can occasionally be effective, depending on context, audience, and purpose.

Sentence Openings

Another way to add sentence variety is with sentence openings. Many writers fall into a pattern of starting sentences the same way, generally with the subject of the sentence. Here is a sample of what can be done with the simple sentence “John broke the window.”   The different openings not only add variety, but also create more interesting content.

• Subject : John broke the window.
• Conjunction: But John broke the window.
• Adverb (answers how, when, why):  Afterwards , John broke the window.
• Adverb Clause: While hitting a fly ball in the vacant field, John broke the window.
• Expletive (there, it): There is the window John broke.
• Correlative Conjunction: Either John broke the window with the fly ball or he did not.
• Prepositional Phrase: During the game, John broke the window.
• Infinitive Phrase: To complete the destructiveness of the baseball game, John broke the window.
• Passive Voice: The window was broken by John.
• Participle Phrase: Testing his father’s patience, John broke the window.
• Subordinate Clause: Although John hit a home run, the price was a broken window.
• Inverted Word Order: The window John broke.

Inverted word order should not be overused. But occasional use at an important point where the writer wants to grab the reader’s attention can add surprise and drama as in the following example:

o   Normal Word Order: The Christmas treats, the bright, beribboned presents, and the charitable love of the season are all gone.

o   Inverted Word Order: Gone are the Christmas treats, the bright, beribboned presents, and the charitable love of the season.

Varied Sentence Lengths

A final way to vary sentences is with length. Experienced writers strive to compose sentences that are short, medium, and long in length. They can check sentence length by beginning each sentence of a paragraph on a separate line, so they can scan the lengths. Here is an example:

• Kirilov’s home is described as dark, in part because of his son’s sickness and death, which occurred barely five minutes before Aboguin rings the doctor’s doorbell.
• The entry is dark and the lamp in his drawing room is unlighted, allowing the twilight and the dark September evening to fill the room, relieved only by a light in the adjoining study that lights his books and a big lamp in the dead boy’s bedroom.
• The darkness extends to Kirilov himself.
• Chekhov describes him as having a prematurely gray beard and skin with a pale gray hue.
• His hands are stained black with carbolic acid, marking him as a laborer.
• His dark home and gray appearance exemplify the grayness and monotony of life that characterize his recent loss and years of poverty.

The varied lengths are easy to see at a glance. If the writer decides the paper’s sentences need to be more varied in length, much can be done. For example, clauses can be converted to phrases: Sentence one in the paragraph above could be changed to the following:

• Kirilov’s home is described as dark, in part because of his son’s sickness and death, occurring barely five minutes before.

Sentences can be combined. Sentences three and four above could become the following:

• The darkness extends to Kirilov himself as Chekhov describes him as having a prematurely graybeard and skin with a pale gray hue.

Long sentences can be divided. Sentence two above could become the following:

• The entry is dark, and the lamp in his drawing room is unlighted, allowing the twilight and the dark September evening to fill the room. The darkness is relieved only by a light in the adjoining study that lights his books and a big lamp in the dead boy’s bedroom.

Phrases can become one or two words. Sentence four above could become the following:

• Chekhov describes him as prematurely gray.

These changes do not necessarily make the sentence better, but they serve as good examples of what can be done to change sentence length and add sentence variety.

SENTENCE CLARITY

Sentence clarity requires grammatical correctness; however, mixed constructions, faulty predication, and inconsistent or incomplete comparisons are common causes of garbled sentences that writers must check for when revising and editing.

Mixed Construction

A mixed construction occurs when a sentence begins with one grammatical pattern and concludes with a different grammatical pattern, as if the writer started writing a sentence, was interrupted, and then finished it without referring back to the beginning.

• The fact that our room was hot we opened the window between our beds.
• By not prosecuting marijuana possession as vigorously as crack possession encourages marijuana users to think they can ignore the law.
• Because of the European discovery of America became a profitable colony for Britain.

An easy way to identify mixed constructions is to read a paper backwards, one sentence at a time so that each sentence is isolated.

Faulty Predication

Faulty predication occurs when the predicate of a sentence does not logically complete its subject. Most often, faulty predication involves the verb “to be.” We know that “to be” verbs act like equal signs between the subject and predicate:

• The piano player is skilled.

However, if the predicate is logically inconsistent with the subject, the sentence will confuse readers.

• The power of a skilled piano player is keenly aware of being able to raise strong emotions in listeners. [Can the power of a piano player be keenly aware?]
• Listeners are keenly aware of the power a skilled piano player has to raise strong emotions in listeners. [Now it is the listeners who are keenly aware.]

Inconsistent or Incomplete Comparisons

When making comparisons, the writer must make sure they are consistent and complete.

• Inconsistent: Brownlee’s business proposal is better than Summers. [Brownlee’s business proposal is being compared to Summers, a person.]
• Consistent: Brownlee’s business proposal is better than the one by Summers.
• Incomplete: I was ashamed because my background was so different. [Different from what?]
• Complete: I was ashamed because my background was so different from that of my new co-workers.

Inconsistent and incomplete comparisons are common in speech. Context, facial expression, and body language supply the missing information. But in formal writing, care must be taken to compose clear sentences.

TRANSITIONS

Transitions are one of the methods used to make paragraphs flow smoothly. Transitions are connectors or bridges between thoughts. When the reader knows the relationship between concepts or sentences, the thoughts flow smoothly and the paragraph is easier to read. Writers use both transition words and transition sentences.

Transition Words and Phrases

Transitional expressions work well between sentences when the relationship between sentences is not already evident. Transitional expressions can also be used between paragraphs so that the content of one paragraph leads logically into the next paragraph. In these cases, the transition highlights the relationship that is already clear. If someone reads the word “however,” they know that the next thought will be in contrast to the previous one. The word acts as a bridge explaining the relationship between the two thoughts. If someone reads the word “meanwhile,” they know that the next event is happening at the same time as the event discussed previously. The word explains the simultaneous relationship between the two events.

Example of Transition Words and Expressions

• To Indicate Time Order : in the past, before, earlier, preceding, recently, presently, currently, now
• To Provide an Example : for example, for instance, to illustrate, specifically, in particular, namely, in other words
• To Indicate Results : as a result, consequently, because of, for this reason, since, therefore, thus, accordingly
• To Concede : although, even though, admittedly, granted, while it is true, of course
• To Compare : in comparison, in like manner, in much the same way, likewise
• To Contrast : and yet, but, despite, nevertheless, nonetheless, notwithstanding, however, contrary to, on the other hand
• To Emphasize : above all, undoubtedly, most importantly, moreover, furthermore, without question

Transition Sentences

For more sophisticated transitions between paragraphs, writers use whole sentences. Types of transition sentences include the following:

• Echo Transition : The writer echoes a word, phrase, or idea from the last sentence of one paragraph in the first sentence of the next paragraph. Here is an example:

. . . Throughout the story, the husband’s word is considered law, and the wife barely dares to question it.

This unequal marriage fits perfectly into the historical period of the setting. . .

The italicized phrase echoes the idea in the previous paragraph, providing a bridge to the next paragraph.

• Key Word Transition : The writer repeats key words from one paragraph to the next. Here is an example:

. . . Shirley Jackson shows the uselessness of the lottery and the selfishness of human nature through Mr. Warner’s ignorance.

This selfishness of human nature is shown very clearly through Tessie in the story….

The repetition of key words demonstrates the relationship between the ideas in the two paragraphs.

• Look Backward and Forward : In one or two sentences, the text looks back at the ideas of the preceding paragraph and then looks forward to the ideas in the next paragraph.

…These first two stanzas set up the theme of triumph in life.

In contrast to this victory, stanza three moves to the issue of dying….

In the italicized sentence, the first phrase (“in contrast to this victory’) looks backward at the ideas of the preceding paragraph. The second clause (“stanza three moves to the issue of dying”) looks forward to the ideas in the next paragraph.

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The Ultimate Guide to Writing Essays That Stand Out

By rctadmin on August 8, 2024 No Comment

Essay writing is a fundamental skill that plays a pivotal role in academic and professional success. Whether crafting a persuasive argument for a college application, dissecting complex theories for a class assignment, or presenting a coherent analysis in a professional report, the ability to articulate thoughts clearly and compellingly through writing is invaluable. This guide is designed to equip you with the tools and techniques necessary to elevate your essays from good to great. By focusing on clarity, originality, and depth, we aim to transform the essay writing process into an opportunity for creativity and intellectual exploration, helping your work to stand out in any context.

Understand the Assignment

The first step to writing an outstanding essay is to thoroughly understand the assignment. Misinterpreting the essay prompt can lead to off-topic writing, which can significantly impact your grade. Start by carefully reading the assignment prompt, paying close attention to the verbs used, such as “analyze,” “compare,” “contrast,” or “describe,” as they dictate the approach your essay should take. If any part of the prompt seems unclear, don’t hesitate to ask your instructor for clarification. In today’s digital age, resources like forums or even services that provide an online paper writer can offer guidance on essay prompts and expectations. For those who need extra assistance, they might consider services where professionals write my essays from EssayPro to ensure they meet the assignment requirements. However, the most accurate understanding will always come directly from your instructor or official assignment guidelines.

Research and Planning

Before you put pen to paper, a thorough research phase is essential to gather the relevant information and evidence to support your thesis. Utilize academic databases, scholarly articles, and credible sources to ensure the reliability of your essay’s foundation. As you research, take detailed notes, including citations for your sources, to streamline the referencing process later.

Planning your essay structure is equally important. An outline serves as a roadmap, guiding you through the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. This step not only ensures a logical flow of ideas but also helps you stay on track and focused on your thesis statement throughout the writing process. Effective planning can make the difference between an essay that reads coherently and one that seems disjointed and unfocused.

Crafting a Strong Thesis Statement

At the heart of every great essay is a strong thesis statement. This concise sentence or two sets the direction for your essay, outlining the main argument or point that you will support with evidence throughout your text. A compelling thesis is specific, arguable, and sets the tone for your analysis. 

To formulate a robust thesis statement, start by identifying the central question your essay addresses. Then, condense your answer to this question into a clear statement that reflects your position or perspective. Your thesis should not only state your argument but also hint at the structure of your essay, giving the reader a glimpse of what to expect. Crafting a thesis that captures the essence of your argument is crucial for guiding your writing and focusing your research, ensuring that every paragraph contributes to the defense of your position. 

The first few sections lay the groundwork for writing essays that not only meet academic standards but captivate and persuade readers. Understanding the assignment ensures alignment with expectations, while effective research and planning set the stage for a well-argued essay. The thesis statement, pivotal for direction, primes the essay for depth and insight, promising an engaging read.

Developing Compelling Arguments and Supporting Evidence

A standout essay is built on the foundation of compelling arguments supported by solid evidence. Each body paragraph should focus on a single main idea that supports your thesis, beginning with a topic sentence that clearly states the argument. Follow this with evidence such as statistics, quotes, examples, or analysis from reputable sources to substantiate your claim. 

Critical to this process is the integration of your evidence into the essay’s narrative. Simply listing facts or quotations is not enough; you must explain how each piece of evidence supports your argument and connects to the overall thesis. This may involve analyzing data, interpreting quotes within the context of your argument, or drawing parallels between examples and your main idea. The strength of your essay lies in your ability to convince the reader through logical reasoning and the quality of your supporting evidence.

Incorporating Original Ideas and Personal Insights

While research and evidence are critical, the inclusion of original ideas and personal insights can elevate your essay, making it truly stand out. This involves going beyond merely summarizing sources or restating common arguments. Engage critically with the material, question assumptions, and explore alternative perspectives. 

Your insights could stem from connecting disparate ideas, applying theories to contemporary issues, or reflecting on personal experiences that relate to the topic. These unique viewpoints can provide depth to your essay, demonstrating not only your understanding of the subject matter but also your capacity for independent thought and creativity.

Enhancing Readability with Effective Language Use

The readability of your essay is significantly influenced by your choice of language and sentence structure. Opt for clarity and precision in your writing, avoiding overly complex sentences or jargon that could confuse readers. Varying sentence length and structure can also help maintain reader interest, creating a rhythm that enhances the flow of your argument.

Furthermore, maintaining a consistent tone that matches the purpose of your essay is essential. Whether formal or informal, the tone should reflect the seriousness of your topic and your audience’s expectations. Effective language use not only makes your essay more enjoyable to read but also reinforces the strength of your arguments.

Revising and Polishing the Final Draft

Revision is a crucial step in the essay-writing process, allowing you to refine your arguments, enhance clarity, and ensure coherence throughout your work. Begin by reviewing your essay at the structural level, ensuring that each paragraph flows logically and contributes to your thesis. Then, focus on sentence-level adjustments, such as correcting grammatical errors, refining word choice, and eliminating redundancies.

Seeking feedback from peers, instructors, or writing centers can provide valuable insights that might be overlooked in self-revision. Incorporating this feedback and making the necessary revisions can significantly improve the quality of your essay.

Writing essays that stand out requires a blend of critical thinking, creativity, and meticulous attention to detail. From understanding the assignment to crafting a compelling thesis, developing arguments, and incorporating original insights, each step is crucial for creating a persuasive and engaging piece. Remember, the key to a great essay is not just in the information it conveys but in how it engages and resonates with the reader. While mastering essay writing is an ongoing journey, utilizing resources like the best essay writing service can offer additional support and inspiration along the way. Embrace each essay as an opportunity to showcase your unique perspective and intellectual rigor, and you’ll find your work not only stands out but also significantly contributes to your academic and professional growth.

The Ultimate Guide to Writing Essays That Stand Out added by rctadmin on August 8, 2024 View all posts by rctadmin →

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Barnard Short Answer Questions

In addition to the personal essay which you will submit through the Common Application or QuestBridge, Barnard asks first-year applicants to respond to institution-specific short answer questions. We recommend spending time to thoughtfully consider these questions and your responses. Your answers to these questions, in conjunction with the rest of your application, will help the Admissions Committee understand how you may contribute to our community both academically and personally.

Below are the  2024  questions for first-year students.

• Required:  Barnard College is an extraordinary community of women committed to fostering curiosity and the exploration of new experiences and ideas. By utilizing the resources of our campus, our Foundations curriculum, and New York City, our students expand their world and discover their own capabilities. How do you envision these intersecting components of Barnard shaping your academic and personal journey? (200 words max)
• Required: Barnard College students engage in the bold questions that define their generation. Choose one question that you have about the world around you, and explain why it matters to you. (150 words max)
• Required: In college, you will encounter others with diverse viewpoints and experiences. Describe an instance where you engaged with someone who held a different opinion and explain how it shaped your perspective on the issue. (150 words max)

*Please note that the questions may change from year to year.

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SEATO’s 70th Anniversary: Lessons for Asia’s Emerging Multilateral Alliances

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Asia defense  |  security  |  east asia  |  southeast asia.

SEATO’s history remains significant even 70 years after its formation and nearly 50 years since its demise.

The leaders of several SEATO countries in front of the Congress Building in Manila, hosted by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos on October 24, 1966.

September 2024 marks the 70th anniversary of the much forgotten and often maligned Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). However, its legacy in fact provides invaluable insights for Asia’s emerging multilateral alliances, such as the “ Quad , ” “ Quad Plus , ” and the much-hyped but still hypothetical idea of an “ Asian NATO .” Despite criticisms of its impotency and disunity, understanding how SEATO emerged and the internal divisions that led to its demise is crucial for navigating today’s complex geopolitical terrain. 

SEATO, also known as the “Manila Pact,” was an international organization for collective defense in Southeast Asia, aimed at combating communist expansion in the region. Established on September 8, 1954, it emerged during a strategic interregnum when postcolonial independence struggles intersected with the United States’ ascent as a superpower and emerging priorities to contain the global expansion of communism.

Back in 1949, Washington had just formed NATO to counter the Soviet threat in Europe and contemplated withdrawing from Asia as communists took over China. Fears of a resurgent Japan and the Chinese communist threat initially led countries like the Philippines, South Korea, and the Republic of China to propose an Asian equivalent of NATO, the “Pacific Pact” (the precursor of SEATO), while Australia and New Zealand sought regional security arrangements against Japan and the Soviet Union. 

The Americans, wary of regional suspicions of imperialism, preferred a “consultative council” under an “Association of Free Nations of Asia and Pacific” to address concerns about Japan and promote anti-communism. However, disagreements arose over the inclusion of Japan, the United Kingdom, and France at an inopportune time when the Korean War escalated in the 1950s. The urgent need to resolve the Japan issue led the United States and its prospective allies to minimally agree on separate mutual defense treaties – what former U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, the architect of SEATO, described as a “spokes on a wheel” approach, now commonly known as the “hub and spoke” system.

None of the parties viewed this system as adequate or final but rather as a prelude to “ a more comprehensive system of regional security in the Pacific area .”

In March 1953, ideas for a multilateral alliance emerged once more after Dulles urged Asian partners to undertake “United Action” in Indochina to counter the looming threat of a “ Red Asia .” Dulles envisioned a coalition comprising the U.S., U.K., France, Australia, Thailand, the Philippines, and the Associated States (Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam), committed to defending Southeast Asia against communist aggression. However, internal disputes quickly arose as prospective allies jostled for their own interests and membership status. It became clear no one would accept this proposal unless the United States committed forces to Indochina and undertook long-term commitments to Thailand and Malaya. 

Growing concerns over French military setbacks at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu soon prompted Washington to take concrete actions toward Dulles’ proposal, leading to backroom meetings to negotiate the formation of SEATO during the Geneva Conference of 1954. During these formative months before its inauguration, significant divisions emerged, particularly among the U.S., U.K., and France. The Americans were frustrated by the French and British reluctance to “ hold the balance of Indochina ,” reportedly “blocking everything” they wanted to do. The British appeared to be dragging their feet by attempting in vain to expand SEATO to include the Colombo powers (Burma, Indonesia, Ceylon, India, and Pakistan): all except Pakistan were rejected due to suspicions of imperialism. The British also opposed French imperial ambitions to include Cambodia and Laos. Except for the U.S. and Thailand, everyone else avoided specifying “communist aggression” as a threat since it would appear unduly provocative to Beijing. 

By August 20, 1954, U.S. concern over its declining prestige in Asia, driven by a perceived failure to lead the fight against communism, compelled it to establish at least some form of security arrangement. Dulles insisted that he “ c[ould]n’t come back without a treaty .” The resulting product was a compromised treaty that reflected the divergent interests of member-states. The reluctance to come to a consensus on the nature of communist threat led to a diluted and unrealistic goal of meeting the common danger of communist “aggression by means of armed attack” – an aggression that never materialized. Ultimately, Washington’s reluctance to commit ground forces in Indochina reduced SEATO to a symbol of anti-communist unity, serving more to preserve U.S. prestige than to facilitate effective military intervention. 

SEATO’s institutional structure created impediments that hindered collective action over the subsequent decades. When the civil war in Laos and Vietnam escalated in the 1960s, the internal divisions became apparent. SEATO members, prioritizing unity over action, avoided measures that could threaten the alliance. As former Thai Foreign Minister Thanat Khoman put it, they aimed to “ save SEATO from impotency .”

In 1973, Pakistan withdrew from SEATO in the wake of East Pakistan’s breaking away in 1971 to become Bangladesh. In 1977, the organization formally disbanded.

SEATO’s history is a cautionary tale for today’s multilateral alliances like the Quad. Both emerged from divisive geopolitical landscapes marked by significant doubts about their desirability – whose interests they serve – and their practicality – whether they would fulfill their intended purpose as a warfighting alliance given the subversive nature of modern great-power conflicts. 

Today, the Quad does not suffer from the same suspicions of Western imperialism that bedeviled much of SEATO’s existence. However, fears of entrapment in a great-power conflict have sparked renewed debates about nonalignment , a relic of the Cold War. The fact remains that most Asian countries do not share the same regional threat perception regarding China that the United States does and do not want the Quad to develop into a countervailing alliance. 

Should China pursue territorial expansion beyond Taiwan, such multilateral alliance proposals might emerge as cohesive and credible. But this scenario appears distant. China’s current challenges to the Indo-Pacific order are of a fundamentally different nature, requiring a hybrid approach to risk mitigation. If even at the height of the Cold War SEATO never faced a armed Chinese communist attack, contemporary policymakers must reconsider whether such alliances are genuinely useful or merely a means to mask insecurities about declining U.S. capacity to maintain regional order. 

SEATO’s past also teaches us about the kind of problems that may emerge with a multilateral alliance in Asia. Allies often expect more than what is provided for in the casus foederis , testing each other’s commitment even on less critical matters to assess their reliability in more challenging times. During the Cold War, the inflated expectations of SEATO allies compelled the alliance to provide security against threats it was never meant to defend, such as communist subversion, the failure of which resulted in great disillusionment. Some decried SEATO as a “ paper tiger ,” appearing powerful against communist China but actually ineffectual, while others called it “ deterrent diplomacy ,” concealing the inadequacy of their defenses through diplomacy. 

Yet SEATO was not to blame. The threat of communist subversion loomed large in its first decade, and SEATO needed to act or risk undermining broader regional confidence in the U.S. security architecture in Asia. SEATO’s experience is telling. Aspiring members of an Asian multilateral alliance must be prepared for the over-expectations of their members, especially in the face of China’s gray-zone operations, lest they be criticized for being just a talk shop. 

SEATO’s history, with all its twists and turns, remains relevant even 70 years after its formation and nearly 50 years since its demise. 

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How to cite ChatGPT

Use discount code STYLEBLOG15 for 15% off APA Style print products with free shipping in the United States.

We, the APA Style team, are not robots. We can all pass a CAPTCHA test , and we know our roles in a Turing test . And, like so many nonrobot human beings this year, we’ve spent a fair amount of time reading, learning, and thinking about issues related to large language models, artificial intelligence (AI), AI-generated text, and specifically ChatGPT . We’ve also been gathering opinions and feedback about the use and citation of ChatGPT. Thank you to everyone who has contributed and shared ideas, opinions, research, and feedback.

In this post, I discuss situations where students and researchers use ChatGPT to create text and to facilitate their research, not to write the full text of their paper or manuscript. We know instructors have differing opinions about how or even whether students should use ChatGPT, and we’ll be continuing to collect feedback about instructor and student questions. As always, defer to instructor guidelines when writing student papers. For more about guidelines and policies about student and author use of ChatGPT, see the last section of this post.

Quoting or reproducing the text created by ChatGPT in your paper

If you’ve used ChatGPT or other AI tools in your research, describe how you used the tool in your Method section or in a comparable section of your paper. For literature reviews or other types of essays or response or reaction papers, you might describe how you used the tool in your introduction. In your text, provide the prompt you used and then any portion of the relevant text that was generated in response.

Unfortunately, the results of a ChatGPT “chat” are not retrievable by other readers, and although nonretrievable data or quotations in APA Style papers are usually cited as personal communications , with ChatGPT-generated text there is no person communicating. Quoting ChatGPT’s text from a chat session is therefore more like sharing an algorithm’s output; thus, credit the author of the algorithm with a reference list entry and the corresponding in-text citation.

When prompted with “Is the left brain right brain divide real or a metaphor?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that although the two brain hemispheres are somewhat specialized, “the notation that people can be characterized as ‘left-brained’ or ‘right-brained’ is considered to be an oversimplification and a popular myth” (OpenAI, 2023).

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

You may also put the full text of long responses from ChatGPT in an appendix of your paper or in online supplemental materials, so readers have access to the exact text that was generated. It is particularly important to document the exact text created because ChatGPT will generate a unique response in each chat session, even if given the same prompt. If you create appendices or supplemental materials, remember that each should be called out at least once in the body of your APA Style paper.

When given a follow-up prompt of “What is a more accurate representation?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that “different brain regions work together to support various cognitive processes” and “the functional specialization of different regions can change in response to experience and environmental factors” (OpenAI, 2023; see Appendix A for the full transcript).

Creating a reference to ChatGPT or other AI models and software

The in-text citations and references above are adapted from the reference template for software in Section 10.10 of the Publication Manual (American Psychological Association, 2020, Chapter 10). Although here we focus on ChatGPT, because these guidelines are based on the software template, they can be adapted to note the use of other large language models (e.g., Bard), algorithms, and similar software.

The reference and in-text citations for ChatGPT are formatted as follows:

• Parenthetical citation: (OpenAI, 2023)
• Narrative citation: OpenAI (2023)

Let’s break that reference down and look at the four elements (author, date, title, and source):

Author: The author of the model is OpenAI.

Date: The date is the year of the version you used. Following the template in Section 10.10, you need to include only the year, not the exact date. The version number provides the specific date information a reader might need.

Title: The name of the model is “ChatGPT,” so that serves as the title and is italicized in your reference, as shown in the template. Although OpenAI labels unique iterations (i.e., ChatGPT-3, ChatGPT-4), they are using “ChatGPT” as the general name of the model, with updates identified with version numbers.

The version number is included after the title in parentheses. The format for the version number in ChatGPT references includes the date because that is how OpenAI is labeling the versions. Different large language models or software might use different version numbering; use the version number in the format the author or publisher provides, which may be a numbering system (e.g., Version 2.0) or other methods.

Bracketed text is used in references for additional descriptions when they are needed to help a reader understand what’s being cited. References for a number of common sources, such as journal articles and books, do not include bracketed descriptions, but things outside of the typical peer-reviewed system often do. In the case of a reference for ChatGPT, provide the descriptor “Large language model” in square brackets. OpenAI describes ChatGPT-4 as a “large multimodal model,” so that description may be provided instead if you are using ChatGPT-4. Later versions and software or models from other companies may need different descriptions, based on how the publishers describe the model. The goal of the bracketed text is to briefly describe the kind of model to your reader.

Source: When the publisher name and the author name are the same, do not repeat the publisher name in the source element of the reference, and move directly to the URL. This is the case for ChatGPT. The URL for ChatGPT is https://chat.openai.com/chat . For other models or products for which you may create a reference, use the URL that links as directly as possible to the source (i.e., the page where you can access the model, not the publisher’s homepage).

Other questions about citing ChatGPT

You may have noticed the confidence with which ChatGPT described the ideas of brain lateralization and how the brain operates, without citing any sources. I asked for a list of sources to support those claims and ChatGPT provided five references—four of which I was able to find online. The fifth does not seem to be a real article; the digital object identifier given for that reference belongs to a different article, and I was not able to find any article with the authors, date, title, and source details that ChatGPT provided. Authors using ChatGPT or similar AI tools for research should consider making this scrutiny of the primary sources a standard process. If the sources are real, accurate, and relevant, it may be better to read those original sources to learn from that research and paraphrase or quote from those articles, as applicable, than to use the model’s interpretation of them.

We’ve also received a number of other questions about ChatGPT. Should students be allowed to use it? What guidelines should instructors create for students using AI? Does using AI-generated text constitute plagiarism? Should authors who use ChatGPT credit ChatGPT or OpenAI in their byline? What are the copyright implications ?

On these questions, researchers, editors, instructors, and others are actively debating and creating parameters and guidelines. Many of you have sent us feedback, and we encourage you to continue to do so in the comments below. We will also study the policies and procedures being established by instructors, publishers, and academic institutions, with a goal of creating guidelines that reflect the many real-world applications of AI-generated text.

For questions about manuscript byline credit, plagiarism, and related ChatGPT and AI topics, the APA Style team is seeking the recommendations of APA Journals editors. APA Style guidelines based on those recommendations will be posted on this blog and on the APA Style site later this year.

Update: APA Journals has published policies on the use of generative AI in scholarly materials .

We, the APA Style team humans, appreciate your patience as we navigate these unique challenges and new ways of thinking about how authors, researchers, and students learn, write, and work with new technologies.

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

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