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5 Steps To Organized Writing
By Lorraine Curry, Sat Dec 10th
After your children are writing sentences, teach them aboutparagraphs. Paragraphs are the key to organized writing. Eachparagraph should contain one main idea or thought, and a topicsentence that sums up that thought in a nutshell. The paragraphshould also contain supporting sentences that explain orsupplement the leading idea in the topic sentence. Here is how you could do this with your children: 1) Tell your students to write a rough draft composition (aboutone or two pages long). Emphasize that their work will berewritten after they learn a new
writing technique. Thiscomposition can be about a book read, an experience, a trip orperhaps even be an original piece of fiction. (See more ideas in the Easy homeschooling books EasyHomeschooling
2) Next—perhaps the next day—have your children circle,highlight, underline or bold (if using a word processor) thesentences that are most important. These are the topicsentences. In a handwritten one page essay, there should beapproximately two to five topic sentences. You could use adifferent colored highlighter or pencil for each paragraph. 3) Then, the supporting sentences need to be gathered togetherwith each topic sentence. Have your students highlight or circlethe supporting sentences and then draw arrows or lines to thecircled topic sentence, which may also be highlighted. Changecolors for each paragraph. 4) Rewrite into paragraphs, placing each topic sentence with itssupporting sentences. Topic sentences can be anywhere in theparagraph, but are usually at the beginning. 5) Organize the paragraphs by thinking what topic should comefirst, second and so on. Rewrite. After doing this exercise a few times, your children’s writing will become far more organized—even their first drafts! About the author:Lorraine Curry is the author of 5 Star books, Easy HomeschoolingTechniques and Easy homeschooling Companion. See more ideas for writing and other subjects at EasyHomeschooling. See FREE articles, checklists, copywork,subscriptions, ebooks and more at http://www.easyhomeschooling.com
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