GOOD WRITING
Writing may be described as a way of communicating a message to a reader for a purpose (Lynn Quitman, Handbook for writers, p. 3). The key words in the above are communicating, message, and purpose. “Communicating,” in writing, means sending a message to a reader. Message refers to the content of your writing. This can be presented in many ways: description, narration, exposition, argumentation, etc. And we write for a purpose: to inform, to persuade, to entertain, etc.
Writing ability is needed by everybody, especially educated people. In tertiary institutions, for example, you are expected to write different types of essays, assignments and examinations. Moreover, most formal jobs demand (effective) writing skills in documents such as letters, instructions, reports, etc. Writing, as an important human development requirement in today’s competitive formal environment, is the main concern of this booklet. The aim is to help you to acquire the skills of good writing and be able to write well.
The Writing Process
The Rhetorical Situation
Every act of writing is done in a particular context, called the rhetorical situation. The rhetorical situation responds to the questions: when, for whom, what, and why do we write? These can be referred to as the elements of the rhetorical situation.
Elements of the Rhetorical Situation
There are five important elements of the rhetorical situation, which are the following: writer, occasion, audience, topic, and purpose. Different kinds of writing may emphasize different elements of the rhetorical situation.
1. Occasion: When do you write?
Occasion is the occurrence that prompts you to write. You may need to answer a letter from a friend; as a politician, you may need to write a speech for a campaign; or as a student, write an assignment given by your lecturer. Obviously, these three occasions would make you to use different approaches in terms of the length, formality of the tone, choice of words, etc. of your writing.
2. Audience: For whom are you writing what you are writing?
We speak in different ways to different people—friends and strangers, adults and children, family members and colleagues at school or work. Your audience, or the targeted recipient of whatever you are writing, also influences how and what you write. You have to think about your readership or audience so that you write to suit their, level, interest, sensibilities, etc. This is called audience analysis.
Characteristics of the audience:
• Gender – male, female
• Education – basic education graduate, senior secondary school graduate, undergraduate students, etc.
• Age – preteen, teenager, middle age, etc
• Personal interest – sports and games, horticulture, business, travel, etc.
• Socio-economic Group – low income, middle class, upper class, etc.
3. Topic: What are you writing about?
In school, the instructor often gives a topic to write on. The student may also be asked to choose a topic of his/her own to write on. When you have a topic to write on (whether it has been given you or you have chosen it yourself), you have the problem of focusing it so that you can do justice to it in the essay. In other words, what you already know about the topic, how much interest you have in the particular topic, and what facilities are available to you to get more information on the topic will influence how well you are able to handle the topic. Thus, in addition to considering your audience and purpose, you need to take into account your knowledge of the subject.
4. Purpose: Why are you writing?
The Five Purposes of Writing:
• To inform
• To persuade
• To amuse or entertain
• To express oneself
Depending on your purpose—why you are writing—you will emphasize some elements of the rhetorical situation more than others. Nevertheless, writing to inform and to persuade are the main purposes of academic writing in tertiary institutions.
Certainly, most writing done for college courses emphasises the topic. What you know about a topic is far more important in such expository writing than what you feel. This is informative writing. Informative writing
• Focuses mainly on the topic being discussed
• Provides complete and accurate information
• Deals with verifiable information
• Is objective
• Is arranged for it to be clear.
Still other writing, such as newspaper editorials, aims to be persuasive, to move the audience to some belief or course of action. (Argument and logic are examples of persuasive writing.) In analytical writing, you are also being persuasive, trying to convince the audience that your thesis or opinion is valid by using examples and supports. Persuasive writing also displays the following feature:
• Its major focus is the reader whom the writer intends to convince
• It offers information or reasons to support a point of view
• Its point of view is based on sound reasoning and logic
• The points are arranged for clarity
• It aims to evoke an intended reaction from the reader.
EXERCISES
For each paragraph, decide if the dominant purpose is informative or persuasive. Justify your decision.
1. During the past decades, the amount of time devoted to theoretical studies in Ghanaian public schools has steadily increased. About twenty years ago, most public school youth took up serious practical studies alongside the theories they learnt. However, today, the majority of them do not even have a single practical experience in high school till they leave school. In contrast, most school in other West African countries emphasise practical aspects of classroom studies. A typical example is Nigeria where every secondary school student learns at least one trade or craft before leaving school even up to today. This is something that could be considered and enforced here in Ghana, too.
2. For the past few years, our city has been in a downward slump, especially in terms of sanitation. Our gutters are choked with rubbish, and our streets are full of filth each day. These unfortunate situations have been sorrowfully neglected as the city authorities responsible are helpless. It is therefore not surprising that our city is filled with various waste-related diseases. Most of our family members fall sick each day and we have to spend time and resources to cater for them. We are the only ones who can solve this problem of ours. We must do something about this disgraceful situation if we want to develop.
SUMMARY
ELEMENTS OF THE RHETORICAL SITUATION
• The Writer: What do I already know about this subject? What interest me about it? What is my attitude toward it? What image, or persona, do I want to project (for example, irate customer, friend, or job applicant)?
• The Occasion: What is the context for writing? How long should this piece be? How much time should I allot for planning, organizing, drafting, and revising a piece of this length? How formal (or informal) should my tone be?
• The Audience: Who is my audience? Are audience members likely to have some knowledge of my subject, or do I need to define basic terms? Can I get feedback from a representative member of my audience?
• The Topic: Do I need to narrow the topic so that it can be effectively covered in a paper of the required length? What sources of information are available to me (such as personal experience, direct observation, books, periodicals in the library, documents on the Internet)? What kinds of new information will I need to seek?
• The Purpose: Why am I writing? Do I want to express my feelings and explore my ideas? Do I want to inform the audience? Or do I want to persuade the audience to accept my position?
PARAGRAPH WRITING
The Single Paragraph Structure
A paragraph is a group of sentences related to one main idea. In order words, a paragraph is a group of related sentences on a point or idea. This (main) idea is expressed in a topic sentence, usually the first sentence of the paragraph. The topic sentence is a summary sentence informing the reader of a paragraph’s topic or main idea. All other sentences in the paragraph must help to show, prove, or explain that topic sentence. If a sentence involves an idea that does not relate to the topic sentence, then the paragraph contains irrelevant information. The particular sentence must be deleted or moved to a paragraph where it belongs.
In academic writing, the visual signal to the reader of a new paragraph is the margin indentation. The first line of the paragraph is indented, i.e., starts one-half inch from the left margin. If you are using a typewriter or a computer, all you need to do is to strike the tab key (the key just before the ‘Q’ with two arrows pointing to opposite directions) once. It is set for one-half inch.
A paragraph is a short piece of writing which can help you to practise many important skills of communicating ideas and create good writing without becoming overwhelmed by sheer mass of content needed to write an essay.
Graphically, the paragraph looks like this:
(i) [ general but focussed ]
[ specific illus/e.g. ]
(ii)
etc
(iii) [ sum of ideas discussed ]
The Single Paragraph
A paragraph in isolation will do one of the following:
• Open an essay
• Introduce a thesis {i.e., the main idea of a paper}
• Develop one of the points supporting the thesis
• Conclude a discussion
• Supply a transition between parts of a fairly long paper
• Close an essay
The Topic Sentence
A paragraph develops one point. In doing this, the writer often uses a topic sentence to introduce this point. In other words, the topic sentence is the sentence that carries the point or main idea, which the whole paragraph develops. All the other sentences will explain, illustrate or otherwise support this sentence. Thus, for a paragraph to be seen as a unified and coherent block, every sentence must contribute to the central idea.
A topic sentence is usually the first sentence of a paragraph. It summarizes the content of the paragraph, telling the reader what to expect. For example, a reader would know exactly what the paragraph is about if the topic sentence was: “Another common household pet is the dog, which freely gives love and companionship to its owner.” The topic sentence states the topic of the paragraph (dogs) and states that main idea about that topic (dogs give love and companionship)
Characteristics of a good topic sentence
A successful topic sentence must
• Be a summary of the main idea of the paragraph. The topic sentence must include both the topic, or subject, and your main idea (opinion or approach) about the topic.
• Cover only one main idea.
• Be a general statement that is provable with explanations and examples.
• Be a statement about your own ideas, written in your own words, not a quotation or a paraphrase of someone else’s ideas. (You can use someone else’s ideas as support or illustration or an example for your topic sentence)
A topic sentence reveals the main idea of a paragraph. Other sentences in the paragraph serve to clarify, develop, and illustrate that idea. Usually, the topic sentence is most effective when presented as the first sentence, but it may have any position in the paragraph.
Here is an example.
The fearsomeness mistakenly attributed to me in public places often has a perilous flavour. The most frightening of these confusions occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s when I worked as a journalist in Chicago. One day, rushing into the office of a magazine I was writing for with a deadline story in hand, I was mistaken for a burglar. The office manager called security and, with an ad hoc posse, pursued me through the labyrinthine halls, nearly to my editor’s door. I had no way of proving who I was. I could only move briskly toward the company of someone who knew me. Another time I was on assignment for a local paper and killing time before an interview. I entered a jewellery store on the city’s affluent Near North Side. The proprietor excused herself and returned with an enormous red Doberman pinscher straining at the end of a leash. She stood; the dog extended toward me, silent to my questions, her eyes bulging nearly out of her head. I took a cursory look around, nodded, and bade her good night. Relatively speaking, however, I never fared as badly as another black male journalist. He went to nearby Waukegan, Illinois, a couple of summers ago to work on a story about a murdered who was born there. Mistaking the reporter for the killer, police hauled him from his car at gunpoint and but for his press credentials would probably have tried to book him. Such episodes are not uncommon. Black men trade tales like this all the time.
(From Brent Staples, “Just Walk On By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space”)
Model 1: Narrative
I remember the first time I heard the word nigger. 2. In my third-grade class, our math test were being passed down the rows, and as I handed the papers to a little boy in back of me, I remarked that once again he had received a much lower mark than I did. 3. He snatched his test from me and spit out that word. 4. Had he called me a nymphomaniac or a necrophiliac, I couldn’t have been more puzzled. 5. I didn’t know what a nigger was, but I knew that whatever it meant, it was something he shouldn’t have called me. 6. This was verified when I raised my hand, and in a loud voice repeated what he had said and watched the teacher scold him for using a “bad” word. 7. I was later to go home and ask the inevitable question that every black parent must face—“Mommy, what does nigger mean?” [Simplified Paragraph Skills, p263]
Discussion:
i. Identify the topic sentence. (S1) (States what the whole paragraph is about)
ii. Generalization (S2) (This statement doesn’t talk specifically about ‘nigger’ but helps in the narration.) Which other sentence is a generalization?
iii. Details: (S3) gives details (explains) something about the word, nigger. Which other sentence gives details in the paragraph?
iv. Concluding Statement: (S7) gives a conclusion or reflection about the events narrated.
Model 2: Narrative
From “The Egg Slide” by Christopher Bovenkerk (student writer)
It was a rainy Saturday, and my mother was doing her normal weekend baking. 2. I was only six at the time, and my mother, brother Matt, and I were in the kitchen when we heard the baby start to cry. 3. My mother left to check on the baby, and being the troublemakers that we were, Matt and I decided to have some fun. 4. Matt and I took the eggs off the table and proceeded to crack open all the eggs down the hall leading from the kitchen to the living room. 5. We then took off all our clothes and slid down that twenty-foot hallway. 6. At the end of our third run down the hall, we were covered in egg from head to toe, having the time of our young lives. 7. Suddenly there she was, towering over me with the look that I knew so well—like a fire breathing dragon—but she had turned into a laughing clown. 8. The hands came off the hips and landed on the face, the frown turning into a gigantic smile. 9. To this day, this memory brightens my mother. 10. Sometimes I wonder if it would be as fun to slide down the hall covered in egg now as when I was six. [Simplified Paragraph Skills p263]
Discussion:
1. Identify the topic sentence (note the time and situation)
2. Identify events (note the chronological ordering) Event 1—baby cries. Event 2—boys decide to have fun. Event 3—Mom returns. Event 4—big change in Mom.
3. Identify concluding statement: today’s reflection.
Model 3: Description
1. My first car was a Junker; my friends and I called it the Purple Bomb. 2. I saved $250 to buy the mid-sized, four-door 1965 Oldsmobile when I was 16 years old. 3. From the outside, the car looked like it had recently been pulled from a river. 4. The maroon paint had faded from many years in the weather, and it was dotted with primer spots. 5. The hood was bent up in one corner, and rust had eaten holes through the fenders. 6. The rubber in the tires had petrified, and the hubcaps were rusted. 7. The inside looked like that of a car waiting in a wrecking yard to be demolished. 8. The maroon vinyl door panels were dirty and faded, and the handles had cracks that were sharp to the touch. 9. The overhead light didn’t have a cover. 10. The maroon seats were held together with about two rolls of silver duct tape, and when you sat down, you could feel the springs pressing against your butt and the duct tape sticking to your back. 11. The dashboard had a spider webbing of cracks all over the front, and although the AM-FM radio worked, the sound was as tinny as a dime store radio. 12. Year round, a Christmas tree air freshener hung on the radio knob to conceal a smell that made you wrinkle your nose and roll down the windows. 13. When I turned the key in the ignition, the engine would cough and sputter into a loud roar that some people might mistake for a train coming toward them, and the ride was so rough that it felt like you were two inches from the road. 14. The car I drive today is the complete opposite to that Olds, but I still think of it with fond memories. 15. Even though the Olds was a wreck, it was my first car, and I treasured it.
1. Identify the topic sentence
2. Determine what each sentence in the group does: explain or illustrate
3. Identify the concluding statement, in any is present
Model 4: Exposition
Although the United States has become an advanced technological country, many old-fashioned superstitions still remain. 2. For example, when walking down a street in New York City past ingeniously built skyscrapers, you might see a sophisticated New Yorker walk around instead of under a ladder. 3. Of course, he or she knows that walking under a ladder brings bad luck. 4. Or, should a black cat wander from a back alley to that same bustling street, some people would undoubtedly cross to the other side of the street to avoid letting a black cat cross their path. 5. Also, it is true that most buildings in the United States do not have a thirteenth floor and many theatres do not have a thirteenth row. 6. Again, we all know that thirteen is an unlucky number. 7. Finally, if you take a drive through Pennsylvania Dutch country, you will see large colourful symbols called hex signs attached to houses and barns. 8. Of course, the people who live there say they are just for decoration, but sometimes I wonder.
(Refined Paragraph Skills)
1. Identify the topic sentence
2. Determine what each sentence in the group does: explain or illustrate
3. Identify the concluding statement, in any is present
Model 5: Exposition
Computer software programs come in a variety of types, each offering different functions to users. 2. The programmes most often used are word processors. 3. These programmes can produce letters, reports, articles, announcements, books, poems, school papers, and class assignments as well as other documents. 4. Another kind of computer program is the database, which allows the user to sort all kinds of information in a variety of ways. 5. You might put on a database a library catalogue, all the business products in inventory, or all the names and addresses of students attending a school. 6. Another kind of programme is the communications programme, which allows the user to connect to the Internet and to send electronic mail to others. 7. If you can access the Internet, you can search thousands of databases, files, and Web sites for information. 8. You can access university libraries, company Web sites, government information agencies. 9. The computer offers many kinds of programmes for users, each with a distinct function or benefit to users.
(Simplified Paragraph Skills, p287)
1. Identify the topic sentence
2. Determine what each sentence in the group does: explain or illustrate
3. Identify the concluding statement, in any is present
Major Characteristics of an Effective Paragraph
• Unity: clear, logical relationships between the main idea of the paragraph and supporting sentences for the main idea.
• Coherence: smooth progression from one sentence to the next within the paragraph.
• Development: specific, concrete support for the main idea of the paragraph.
• Topic sentence: if there is one in the paragraph and if it begins the paragraph.
Writing Unified Paragraphs
A paragraph should be unified. A paragraph is unified when all its sentences clarify or contribute to support the main idea. Unity is lost if a paragraph goes off the topic by including sentences unrelated to the main idea. Consider the paragraph below.
We have all used physical databases since our grammar school
days. Grammar school is known today as grade school or
elementary school. Our class year-book, the telephone book,
and the shoebox full of receipts documenting our deductions for
the IRS—these are all databases in one form or another, for a
database is nothing more than an assemblage of information
organised to allow the retrieval of that information in certain
ways. Anyone who is well organised has a better chance of
succeeding in college or in the business world.
In the above, the second and last sentences wander away from the topic (databases) of the main idea (using databases in our grammar school days). As a result, the unity in the paragraph is lost. The implication is that the paragraph fails to communicate a clear message. Readers quickly and easily lose patience with this kind of writing.
Paragraph Length
The length of a paragraph is important because the rule about length varies with each type of writing. For our purposes here, The paragraph length will depend on the complexity of your main idea since the paragraph should be complete in development. Simpler main ideas usually require shorter paragraphs.
The Multiple-Paragraph Structure
From the Paragraph to the Essay
The formula for the very well organized expository essay begins, like the journey of a thousand kilometres, with the single well-organized introductory paragraph. There will be the topic sentence. This will be supported by explanations and illustrations. It may end with a concluding statement.
When we “expand” this paragraph, we get a full essay, thus:
• The topic sentence becomes the thesis statement of the essay.
• Each major support becomes a topic sentence for a new paragraph.
• Each minor support provides details to develop its new paragraph in the essay.
• The concluding statement becomes the concluding paragraph of the essay.
Essay Writing
An essay may be described as a group of related sentences on a topic organised in paragraphs. Note the bold key points in the description. An essay is a written response to a given problem or question. It calls upon you to organise information to support a structured argument, and to communicate the argument clearly and concisely. Developing the skills in essay writing is a crucial part of university work.
THE PURPOSE OF ESSAYS
One of the main purposes of essays is to assess your understanding of a subject area. Essays also serve other intellectual purposes:
• To organise your thinking.
• To bring a wide range of material to bear on a given problem or issue.
• To respond critically and with your own ideas to the issue.
• To select and use information to support an argument.
• To present this argument in a clearly structured and literate way.
The parts of the Parts
The essay can be seen to have three parts: the introduction, body, conclusion. Note that the form of the single paragraph is replicated in the introduction or opening paragraph, the middle paragraphs or body, and the concluding paragraph.
Graphically, the essay will be represented like this:
Opening
paragraph
containing the
thesis statement
Small ideas: illustrating,
explaining big idea.
Middle paragraphs
Closing paragraph
The Introduction of an Essay (Opening)
The introduction of a piece of writing has two purposes:
• to indicate your subject or the issue you are going to discuss
• to catch the audience’s interest
Your introduction should be natural, not forced; an awkward introduction will only puzzle readers, who will be unable to establish a meaningful connection between the introduction and the body of the paper.
The introduction is a paragraph, normally called the introductory paragraph. The subject of main issue discussed in the essay is introduced in a statement or sentence called the thesis statement. The thesis statement usually occurs last in the introductory paragraph after the lead-up-to. The lead-up-to is the interesting information you write before the thesis statement in the introduction.
Thus, the Introduction introduces the argument of the essay. You only need to use the appropriate technique to introduce your essay so that it becomes interesting to arrest the attention of your reader
Some strategies in writing the lead-up to
You may use one of the following strategies to open your paragraph:
a) define some of the terms in the title
b) give your opinion of the subject
c) show that you have read some research on the subject
d) show that the subject is worth writing about
e) get the reader’s attention with a provocative idea
f) show how you intend to organise your essay
a) Definition
It may be necessary to clarify some of the words in the title to make clear your understanding of the title. Opening with a definition is effective if it gives the audience new information or new understanding. It loses its effectiveness if the audience is familiar with the definition.
b) Give your opinion of the subject
Example:
What is loyalty? It is, above all, conformity. It is the uncritical and unquestioning acceptance of America as it is—the political institutions, the social relationships, the economic practices. It rejects inquiry into the race question or socialized medicine, or public housing, or into the wisdom or validity of our foreign policy. It regards as particularly heinous any challenge to what is called “the system of private enterprise, identifying that system with Americanism.
Henry Steele Commager, “Who is Loyal to America?”
c) Show that you are abreast with current research findings in the area
In longer assignments it is important to show that you are familiar with current. You may begin with such phrases as:
A number of researchers have examined this issue, notably …
Various investigations have been carried out on this subject, especially …
d) Show the importance of the topic
You may wish to show why it is important to investigate the issue you are writing about either as an academic exercise or as a contemporary issue of wider relevance.
As privatisation is increasingly seen as a remedy for economic ills in many other countries, it is worth examining its impact in Britain, which was a pioneer in this process.
e) Indicate your limit in discussing the issue at stake
As you are writing only an essay, not a book, it is obviously not possible to deal with all aspects of your subject. Therefore, you need to explain what limits you are setting on the discussion, and possibly give reasons for this example.
Only privatisations completed between 1981 and 1992 will be dealt with, as it is too soon to assess the impact of later developments.
f) Outline how your essay will be organized
Such an outline of how your essay will be organised will be of benefit to both you and your audience.
As assessment will first be made of the performance of the privatised industries themselves, on an individual basis, and then the performance of the economy as a whole will be examined.
Other Strategies
1. Interesting Characteristics
If your subject has some unusual characteristics, you can use one or more of them to open your piece and capture the audience’s attention and interest. The following introduction, for example, uses the notion of eccentricity to make readers curious about Norton I.
During the Gold Rush of 1849 and the years that followed, San Francisco attracted more than any city’s fair share of eccentrics. But among all the deluded and affected that spelled through the Golden Gate in those early years, one man rose to become perhaps the most successful eccentric in American history: Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico.
Joan Parker, “Emperor Norton I”
2. Surprising Statistics or Fact
Sometimes you can open with an interesting or starling statistic or fact. For example:
During a six-month period in 1973, the New York Times reported the following scientific findings:
A major research institute spent more than $50,000 to discover that the best bait for mice is cheese…
3. Anecdote
A brief narrative of an amusing, peculiar, or interesting incident—an anecdote—can provide a striking introduction.
At just about the hour when my father died, soon after dawn one February morning when ice coated the windows like cataracts, I banged my thumb with a hammer. Naturally I swore at the hammer, the reckless thing, and in the moment of swearing I thought of what my father would say: “if you’d try hitting the nail it would go in a whole lot faster. Don’t you know your thumb’s not as hard as that hammer?” We were both doing carpentry that day, but far apart. He was building cupboards at my brother’s place in Oklahoma; I was at my home in Indiana, putting up a wall in the basement to make a bedroom for my daughter. By the time my mother called with the news of his death—the long distance wires whittling her voice until it seemed too thin to bear the weight of what she had to say—my thumb was swollen.
Scott Russell Sanders, “The Problem That Has No Name”
4. Background
Providing some background or historical material about your subject may arouse the audience’s concern and interest. The following is the opening of a piece of work, which examines modern slavery in Africa.
The problem of slavery had dogged the African for ages. There had been domestic slavery involving poor families who sold members of the family considered ‘unproductive.’ The Arabs brought another kind of slavery, which involved among others the capture and sale of men to work as eunuchs in the harems of the kings and princes. The most devastating and debasing kind of slavery was the cartel slavery, which saw the carting of human cargo over the Atlantic to the Americas. Modern slavery often involves little children…
The Thesis Statement
Every good introduction of an essay contains the thesis statement. This is a sentence that introduces the central idea (called thesis) of the essay. The thesis statement is to an essay what the topic sentence is to a paragraph. In the introductory paragraph, the thesis statement normally occurs as the last sentence to give a clue to the reader as to the subject to be discussed in the whole essay and how it is going to be discussed.
2. THE BODY OF AN ESSAY
This is the part of the essay where the ideas or points of the topic are explained, expounded, elaborated, etc. each point or idea takes a paragraph.
In developing the thesis into paragraphs of an essay, one may use any or a blend of these techniques or ways:
• description
• narration
• exposition
Others are
• argumentation
• cause and effect
• analogy
• definition
• example
• and so on
Unity in the body of an essay
Unity is singleness of purpose and treatment; a unified body or paper has one central idea and does not digress into unrelated topics. The various ideas in each paragraph of the body should link up with the preceding paragraph towards the thesis of the essay. In general, a unified body should develop the idea expressed in the thesis statement. In this way, the body will have unified and coherent paragraphs all supporting the thesis statement.
3. THE CONCLUSION OF THE ESSAY (ENDING)
The way you conclude a paper depends on both the purpose of your writing and the needs of your audience. For example, an essay about a memorable experience could end by reflecting on what you learned from the experience.
A persuasive essay in which you compare and contrast two items might end by summarizing the ways in which one is superior to the other.
An argument could end by reminding the reader of the points you have made in support of your thesis and perhaps calling for action.
Types of Conclusion
Depending on the trend of an essay in terms of the thesis and body, the conclusion may be built around any of the following:
1. Reflection
Looking back, for example,
I’m surprised I made it through that semester. Sometimes I wonder if it was worth it. I worked hard, I worried constantly, and I even began to doubt myself.
2. Summary
If you’re shopping for a computer, buy a Mac. It’s user friendly, it has better graphics than other personal computers do, and it’s cheaper. What more could you want?
3. Call for Action
Join ACLU now if you want to retain your Fourth Amendment rights.
4. Question
Do you want to return to the days of illegal search and seizure? Do you wish to relinquish your rights to personal privacy? Do you really believe the government should tell you how to live?
5. Advice
Son and father, together, had saved the day—he by holding out for something he enjoyed and I by having the sense, finally, to realize that he was right, and to let go of my dream of how things should be.
Note: whatever kind of conclusion you decide on, it should not introduce new topics, apologize for any real or perceived failings in the paper, or merely stop or trail off. Make sure your paper has a clear sense of closure.
COHERENCE IN AN ESSAY AS A WHOLE
One of the important qualities of a good essay is for the sentences and especially the paragraphs to flow logically. When there is coherence in and essay, the ideas flow smoothly from one to the other up to the end. This makes it possible for the reader to easily follow the writer’s trend of thoughts.
There are various techniques one can use to bring about coherence in an essay. Some of these are the use of
• repetition
• pronouns
• parallelism
• transitional words and expressions
Common Transitional Words and Phrases
• Addition and Sequence: again, also, besides, even more important, finally, first, further, furthermore, in addition, in the first place, last, likewise, moreover, next, second, then, third
• Cause and Effect: accordingly, as a result, because, consequently, for, for this reason, hence, so, then, therefore, thus
• Comparison: also, in the same way, likewise, similarly, comparatively
• Contrast: although, at the same time, but, conversely, even so, however, in contrast, nevertheless, nonetheless, notwithstanding, on the contrary, otherwise, still, yet
• Example: for example, for instance, in fact, indeed, of course, specifically, that is, to illustrate
• Place: above, adjacent to, below, beyond, farther on, here, nearby, on the other side, opposite to, there, to the south
• Time: after, afterward, at length, before, earlier, immediately, in the meantime, in the past, later, meanwhile, now, since, soon, then, until then, while
• Purpose: for this purpose, for this reason, to this end, with this object
• Summary or Conclusion: as I have said, consequently, in any event, in brief, in conclusion, in other words, in short, in summary, to sum up, on the whole, that is, therefore
Planning an Essay
When one is faced with an essay topic or question, no matter the situation, ie whether examination or not, the best thing to do is first to plan the essay. Planning here goes through some steps.
• If the topic is broad, trim or narrow it to a manageable or specific form, looking at the time and space for the essay.
• Identify the thesis. The thesis is the focus or central point of the essay. It is the exact angle or viewpoint you want to adopt in writing about the topic. In other words, it is the position taken on the subject. The thesis is normally stated in a sentence form.
• Decide on your tone and mode of development.
• List the points or ideas you want to develop in the essay. The points should be based on the thesis and not on the topic or question. Think carefully and critically, and generate strong point that can be adequately developed. Remember that each point will be developed into a paragraph in the body of your essay. Thus, the number of points you have will determine the number of paragraphs you will have in the body of your essay.
• Decide on the strategy you think is best suited to introduce your essay so as to make the best impact and think about your conclusion, too. (see p
• Formulate your thesis statement.
Here is an Example
Subject: education (too broad)
Topic (narrowing): tertiary education in Ghana
Thesis: challenges facing tertiary education in Ghana
Points : - few institutions for very many eligible students
- high cost of education
- lack of infrastructure (classrooms, halls, libraries, laboratories, etc.)
- lack of adequate lecturers
- poor work conditions for workers of tertiary institutions
Thesis statement: Depending on the trend of the led-up-to of your introduction,
the thesis statement of the above may occur last as follows:
- Unfortunately, tertiary education in Ghana is faced with a
myriad of serious problems as discussed below.
- A critical appraisal of tertiary institutions in Ghana reveals
that tertiary education has many challenges, some of
which are discussed in this essay.
- while some countries elsewhere are preparing to move
tertiary education to a height unimaginable, Ghana is still
grappling with many basic problems in her tertiary
education as shown below.
The essay
Challenges Facing Tertiary Education in Ghana
Education is very important in the life of any society or community. It prepares people to be responsible members who can fend for themselves in theirs communities. In Ghana, formal education can be categorised into three stages. These are the primary, secondary and tertiary levels. Of the three, tertiary level education is the most crucial because it produces the middle to senior level manpower needs of the country. Products of our tertiary institutions come out to take up the key leadership roles in business, politics, teaching, among others, in this country. Unfortunately, tertiary education in Ghana is faced with a myriad of serious problems as discussed below.
In the first place, there are very few tertiary institutions in Ghana for the thousands of people who leave secondary school each year. Presently, Ghana has uncountable secondary schools all over the country. These schools churn out many students most of whom qualify for post secondary education in polytechnics, universities, and so on. However, the number of qualified students far outweighs the tertiary institutions that can absorb them. This situation is leaving many secondary school graduates jobless on the streets and thus depriving the country of future leaders tomorrow.
The high cost of education, especially at the tertiary level, is really a problem to students and parents alike. Presently, students in institutions of higher learning have to pay for tuition, hall of residence, utilities, as well as fend for themselves, acquire books, among others. The amounts involved in the above are staggering considering income levels in the country. For example, tuition fees alone for one university here in Ghana for a continuing humanities student is about six hundred Ghana cedis (GHc 600.00) As such, many brilliant and potential tertiary materials are unable to enrol because they cannot afford the cost involved. The implication is that higher education is becoming a preserve for the rich, which is not a good thing for a developing country like Ghana.
To worsen the matter, almost all the tertiary institutions in this country lack adequate infrastructure for unblemished academic work to go on. Limited classrooms have resulted in overcrowding in the lecture halls where sometimes over 500 students take one lecture. It is not uncommon to find students standing on corridors during lectures. Halls of residence are also not adequate for the number of students enrolled forcing some students to travel long distances for lectures. Additionally, most institutions lack good laboratories, computer facilities, libraries. All these impede the level of knowledge the students are expected to achieve at the end of their studies.
Additionally, most institutions do not have the needed qualified and competent lecturers to handle the various courses. The poor conditions of work have compelled people to take up jobs with industry instead of teaching. Such a situation undoubtedly has a negative effect on the calibre of students who graduate from these institutions in terms of knowledge acquisition.
In conclusion, it has to be stated that tertiary education holds the key to the future well-being of any society. Graduates from tertiary institutions usually provide the needed technical knowledge the gives direction and drive to policy formulation and implementation. Therefore, efforts should be made to facilitate access to tertiary institutions for all who are eligible. This can be achieved by solving the problems identified above.
ANSWERING ESSAY QUESTION IN EXAMINATIONS
As you become more familiar with writing essays and sitting examinations, you will notice that certain key phrases occur time and time again in your essay questions or titles. Below are some of the most common, with an explanation of what they mean:
• analyse: look at the concepts and ideas under discussion in depth.
• assess: make comments about the value/importance of the concepts and ideas under discussion.
• compare: look for similarities between the concepts and ideas under discussion.
• contrast: look for differences between the concepts and ideas under discussion.
• criticise: judge the strengths and weaknesses of a particular issue, theory or concept, using reasoned argument (and references) to back up your points.
• critically: analyse as above, but in depth.
• define: state precisely what is meant by a particular issue, theory or concept.
• describe: give a detailed account of.
• discuss: give reasons for and against; investigate and examine by argument.
• evaluate: weigh up the arguments surrounding an issue, using your own opinions and, more importantly, reference to the work of others.
• illustrate: make clear by the use of example.
• outline: give the main features of.
• relate: show how issues are connected.
• review: list all that is available (or that you have access to) on a particular subject.
• state: present in a clear, concise form.
• summarise: give an account of all the main points of the concepts and ideas under discussion with reference to use specific examples to make the meaning clear.
