• Start by pre-writing—jotting down your ideas without worrying about spelling mistakes or structure.
• Use your project topic and brainstorm. What information do you want to share? What are the important ideas and facts you found in your research? Refer to your outline.
• Start to free-write. Write down any thoughts you have about your subject.
  

Draft

• Use your prewritten thoughts to develop a general thesis statement. A thesis statement is a sentence that expresses a central thought or idea. It states your purpose or the main argument you hope to make and it gives focus to your text.
• Draft a topic paragraph. Depending on your thesis statement, you should list several main details that help you support your argument.
• Work on the content. Draft paragraphs that use details to further support your argument.

Introduction

• Write a one or two paragraph introduction, describing what you have written about and giving an indication of why it is important to you. The introduction should also include your thesis statement.

Content

• The content of your paper is found in your supporting paragraphs. Your content should support your thesis and make points that fully explain each detail or concept.

Conclusion/closing statement

• Re-state the main points of your argument in your concluding paragraph.
• Address how your research supports your thesis statement or what you had hoped to find in your research.

Proofreading/revision

• Reread what you have written and correct any spelling or grammatical errors.
• After proofreading, go back and look for any awkward phrases, incomplete thoughts or sentence fragments and revise or re-write those problem areas.
• Does each paragraph work as a paragraph? A paragraph should contain only one main idea or several closely-related ideas.
• Do the paragraphs flow smoothly into one another?
• Have you adequately explained everything to the reader?

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