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Creating a Composition:

Or How To Write a Great Paper

Many assignments in many different courses require that you write a paragraph or composition (also called a theme or essay). Following are some important things to know about any composition or writing assignment:

• A composition is a group of paragraphs (at least 3 to 5) that present and develop one main idea.
• A composition has an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.
• A composition may be narrative, descriptive, or explanatory.
• A composition must have correct grammar and spelling.

Writing a composition is a process; they do not flow out of your head and through your fingers onto the printed page. If you follow the process, you will be able to create an acceptable theme. In the spaces provided, gather information that you will use to write your paper.

Step 1: Choose a topic with care. Your assignment will give you a general idea about a topic; for example, a memory or a role model. You must choose a specific topic that will fit into the general topic. Choose something or someone that you care about and have reliable knowledge that can support your statements.

General topic given in the assignment

Your specific topic

Step 2: Gather details and information on the topic. A simple way is to answer the following questions about your topic. Some questions will generate more information about your topic than others. If you have a large number of details, you can write a better paper because you will have a lot of information to choose from.

Questions	Specific Details
Who?
What?
Where?
When?
Why?
How?

Step 3: Organize your ideas. Keep these things in mind:

• Gather specific examples, sensory detail, facts and statistics, or incidents of anecdotes to support and develop the main idea of a composition.
• Group similar details around several main ideas.
• Organize main ideas and the details grouped around them into one of the following orders: chronological, spatial, order of importance, general to specific, most familiar to least familiar, or comparison and contrast.

Step 4: Write your first, rough draft of your composition. Pay attention to organization. Your paper should have an introduction, body and conclusion. In the following table take time to plan what will be included in each part of the paper.

Introduction

Body

Conclusion

Step 5: Revise and edit your composition. Now is when you improve and correct your paper. Keep in mind the following:

• When you revise, try to improve the content and organization of your work.
• When you revise, replace vague, general words with strong, specific ones.
• Let the computer help you edit your work. Pay attention to places in your composition that have red and green lines. These indicate places that the computer program says need to be corrected. Sometimes the computer will correct your spelling automatically. Be sure all the corrections are the words you want to use.
• Proofread to find and correct errors in grammar, spelling, usage, and mechanics.
• Be sure your theme has a title.

Step 6: Submit your paper. Either printout your composition or notify your teacher that your paper is ready to be graded.