The 6 Written Composing Processes for the CSET

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forecasts what your essay will contain. A good thesis statement suggests what you intend to cover in the paper. For your exploratory paper on alcoholism, you might write this thesis

statement: There are four possible causes to alcoholism, yet not all alcoholics drink for these reasons. Your reader knows now that you will explore these four causes and that you will discuss the idea that not all alcoholics drink for those causes.

Topic sentences: Each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence which states the main idea of that paragraph. Just like the thesis statement, the topic sentence is a forecasting device. For the first paragraph on the causes of alcoholism, you might write a topic sentence that states, The most compelling cause of alcoholism is genetics. Your reader will now know that you will cover the concept of heredity and alcoholism within this paragraph.

Sufficient support: You need to support you topic ideas by developing the paragraphs with sufficient support. Support comes in many different forms: statistics, researched information, observations, descriptions, case studies, interviews, personal experience, hypothetical situations, definitions, etc. The more specific the information, the more interesting the paragraph. So instead of writing about all alcoholics, you might want to write about one particular alcoholic—someone you know, someone you observed, someone you interviewed, someone you researched.

Coherence: If an essay is coherent, all the paragraphs relate to the one before it and all the sentences relate to the one before it. Transitional words and phrases help to create bridges between sentences, words such as however, for example, in other words, in contrast, nevertheless, etc. Repeating key words also helps to create bridges between sentences and paragraphs. You set up the key words to an essay and a paragraph within the thesis statement and the topic sentences. For example, the key words in the thesis statement and topic sentence on alcoholism are causes, alcoholism and genetics. These words can be repeated within the paragraph to help create bridges between sentences and can also be used between paragraphs. The key to create a bridge or transition between paragraphs is to repeat the key term of the first paragraph before introducing the key word of the next paragraph. So a transition between a paragraph on genetics and how a person is parented as causes for alcoholism might look like this: No only does genetics play a part in causing alcoholism, but how a person is parented might also play a part. Now there is a connection between the two ideas—the reader sees both of them as causes.

Unity: The idea here is don’t digress. Make sure all sentences relate to the topic sentence and

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