The Writing Process II

Beginning to write
your essay

• Let’s say you’ve got your topic,

you’ve drawn out your outline,
and now it’s time for you to
start writing your essay
• We’ll start by creating the
header and title for your work
 MLA Header

• In this class, you are expected to

use MLA format when writing
your essays.
• While MLA format is mostly
directed towards how you cite
and format sources, it is also
directed towards the way your
header looks on the first page of
your essay.
• Refer to the Word document on
Moodle called, “How to Format a
Paper in MLA” for more help with
MLA headers.
Titling your Essay
• The title of your essay will make or break your piece.
• You want your essay title to catch the readers attention
• You also want your title to have two parts:
• Part One: The topic of your essay
• Part Two: Your side of the argument

Well-written title:
Roller Coasters and Safety Belts: Enhancements are Necessary

Poorly-written title:
Coasters and safety belts, big people can’t ride
Paragraph One: Introduction
Your introduction paragraph will do numerous things for your essay:
1. Provide an opening hook;
2. Introduce the reader to your general topic;
3. Transition into your specific problem/issue;
4. Conclude with your thesis statement, so readers know exactly what your
paper is going to discuss.
Paragraph Two-Four: Body Paragraphs
• Your next three paragraphs are going to talk exclusively about your
supporting details for your thesis.
• When you use a three-point thesis statement (later in the semester),
each of your three supporting points in the thesis will get its own
body paragraph.
• Remember, paragraphs should be 5-6 sentences in length, and should
provide support (quotes) and examples of real-life situations.
Paragraph Five: Conclusion
• Opposite of the introduction paragraph, your conclusion will start off
with the first line restating your thesis statement.
• You will then move into briefly summarizing everything you discussed
in your paper.
• It will end with a strong concluding line that closes your paper nicely
(this is often one of the hardest sentences to write in the essay).
Writing your first draft

• You have a lot of freedom in how you can go about

starting to write out your first draft of your paper.
• You can choose to work in paragraph order, or you
can work out of order—if the body paragraphs are
easier for you to write than the intro, do them first
and come back to the intro later.
• Remember to refer to your outline while you write
—your outline keeps your ideas in order and tells
you what information goes where in your paper.
 • Revising your first draft of your essay is
CRUCIAL—while we’d like to believe
we’ve written the first draft perfectly, it
Essay is more than likely not going to get an
A.
Revisions • The main way to revise your essay is by
using Tutor.com or see the Writing
Center tutor.
Tutor.com
The College of the
Albemarle works
exclusively with tutor.com
--you will notice the link
at the top of our Moodle
page (you have to use this
link! If not, they'll try to
make you pay for your
session!)
I strongly recommend
students submit their
essay drafts to tutor.com,
as their feedback is very
helpful (and it's nice to
have a second pair of
eyes on your work)

On this site, you have a

variety of options on how
Once your tutor session is
you want your paper to
over, you will know what
be reviewed—you can do
needs improved upon in
live tutoring (either with
your essay before you
voice or chat box), or you
submit it for a grade, and
can do a drop-off (send
you’ll also know what
them your essay and a
you’ve already done
tutor will provide
strongly in the paper
comments on it within 12
hours)
REVISION IS KEY
• There are other ways you can go about fixing up your essay before submitting for a grade:
• Read it out loud—this might sound weird and awkward, but you are more likely going to
catch small errors when you read the paper out loud than you would reading it silently to
yourself
• Have a friend read it over—a fresh set of eyes never hurts!

And of course, when you receive feedback, MAKE THE CORRECTIONS. We all have to do it.
 • For this class, I recommend you use
Microsoft Word when turning in
essays.
• DO NOT SUBMIT ANY ESSAY AS A PDF
A Final Word FILE –I can’t comment on these!
• I am aware that some students use
Google Docs, which is a fine alternative
as well. You can still download this to a
word document!