A Good Essay is More than Just Five Paragraphs :: Teaching Writing Essays

A Good Essay is More than Just Five Paragraphs This year in College Writing one has been very interesting. I understand now that there is a lot more that goes into writing a paper than I first thought. I especially realize this when I look back at one of my first papers which was the descriptive essay titled, "The Hidden Truth." The first thing that pops into my mind when I look at this paper is my consideration of the kind of audience I had. I was assuming they were very or somewhat knowledgeable about the topic I chose. I realize this is not true now. This is the process that goes on in my mind when I first meet people. I think, for the audience I had, the main idea needed to be more concrete. As I went on in this class the kind of topics I chose got more & more concrete & audience consideration grew stronger in forming my papers. The second thing that I can determine about how my writing has changed since this first paper is my narrowing of focus. I've realized this is key to writing a good paper.In "The Hidden Truth," my writing jumps from one thing to the next and a lot of it is not tied back to the main idea. Yes, this was a descriptive essay but my descriptions seem to over ride my main focus. My papers have been getting more convincing since I've realized how important this is. Another important aspect of writing is order. I understand now that the same information in a paper arranged differently can make or break a paper. In my paper I just observed the people & figured the most logical order was chronological, starting with the youngest person & going to the oldest. I feel now that if I would have started with the oldest woman, it might have drawn my audience in more & seen what I was talking about early on instead of waiting until the end, after I've already lost their interest Word usage is also very important to papers.This is especially true in descriptive essays. I've learned how different words give us different feelings even if they have the same meaning.