PUT YOUR MAIN TOPIC HERE. Write a few sentences that hone in on your topic, just to keep you on track. They don’t have to be pretty, they don’t even have to make sense to anybody but you at this point, just write something down. Count out how many sentences you want to write about this point. I usually say five sentences to a paragraph. Then...
Make a transition to your next paragraph. Write a sentence or two about what this paragraph focuses on. Remember, your goal is to explore all the stuff you can about a particular topic, and you want to carry your reader to the end of the essay. Count out how many sentences you want so you know how long to camp out here. Will you spend one paragraph? Two? Four? If your paper is short, you might want to keep it to about one paragraph per topic, if your paper is a lot longer (oh, lets say... six to ten pages) you’ll want to drrrrrraaaaaagggggg it out as long as possible, three to four paragraphs on three or four bullet points. Remember, you don’t have to write REALLY LONG paragraphs, they can be as short as five sentences.
Once you’ve counted out your sentences for ALL your paragraphs, add any quotes that you’ll be needing into their respective paragraphs. For example... if I were writing a paper about how great the Pink Panther theme song was, I might need a quote from Mr. Expert to back me up. So I might say... Along with myself and many others, Mr. Expert agrees that “While band music can often be annoying, especially during overtime football games, the Pink Panther theme song seems to cheer the dullest of spirits” (and then I would have to have the correct citations in this little paragraph LIKE; Mr. Expert, 101).
After you’ve taken the trouble to add in all your quotes, you’ll have cooked up a nice little essay soup with lots of the right ingredients to start you off. Now, you add the “meat” to your stew, which is your marvelous writing around the quotes and meeting your sentence amount requirements. Once this is done, you can draw your readers into a conclusion.
At this point in the essay, you should have beaten your topic to death. Everyone should understand where you’re coming from and why you wrote the essay (unless you’re a professor or a professor wannabe, in which case your audience should be thoroughly confused). Now, you can give your audience a little breather. Don’t recap at this point, instead put the cap on. Enforce the MEANING of your essay and WHY ITS IMPORTANT. DO NOT retell all the information you just wrote about. Then you can pull out your polish, shine up the dull spots, and voila, you have an essay!
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