Essay Series: Brainstorming for Topic Sentences

I think it only appropriate to begin my very first blog entry with a warm and heart-felt welcome. So, “Welcome!” My name is Phillip Mattie and I am very pleased to be able to provide you with some information on how to write essays: brainstorming for topics with online english tutoring.

The information you will find in my Essay Series applies to High School and GED students who are looking for extra prep for Diploma exams. The Series will consist of five entries.

This is the lead-off hitter, where I explain how to develop good body-paragraph topic sentences. And, when I am finished the Series, you will be able to understand each part of the essay, why the different parts matter, and most importantly, what constitutes a passing essay. Because, after all, that’s what really matters.

Let’s get down to business, shall we?

The first thing you encounter when writing a Diploma essay is a topic. The range of potential topics is broad, and can fall anywhere from domestic life to wealthy athletes. I know. Broad doesn’t really begin to describe it.

It is impossible to prepare for topics in advance simply because they are so broad, but rest assured that it will be something you can sink your teeth into. Here’s one that I pulled up with a quick Google search, straight from the government web site: “What does it take to be a good parent?”[i] You should have plenty of ideas for a topic like that.

Essay Topics

Equally important to essay topics are the directions just below the question you are asked to answer. Read them carefully. The directions for the topic I have mentioned read as so: “In your essay, describe the characteristics of a good parent. Give specific details to explain your views. Use your personal observations, experience, and knowledge.”[ii] In other words, you need to write about the characteristics of good parents.

Don’t talk about why your parents suck or how smothering your mother is when your friends are around. Stick to specific qualities that you think a good parent would have.

Now that you have a topic and have read the directions thoroughly, a bunch of ideas are likely swirling around in your head. That’s a good thing. It is very important to write those ideas down immediately. Don’t worry about grammar, sentence structure, syntax, anything at online english tutoring taught you about the English language.

Simply Brainstorm

Write like the wind. Write a key word or a whole paragraph, draw a mind map or make a list; it doesn’t matter. Remember, you are not graded on brainstorming, but it is critically important in making a successful essay. Please note that this brainstorming process is not part of your written essay; you are simply getting thoughts onto paper.

After you have written down your ideas, I would consider it extremely wise to go back and look at the essay topic again (this is my way of politely telling you to actually do it). Going back to the essay’s topic will help you stay focused, and will remind you of what you are supposed to write. Remember?

Characteristics of good parents. Now you can go through what you brainstormed and eliminate anything that is off-topic. What is left should consist only of what the directions specify.

Pick Three of the Best Things For Essay: Online English Tutoring

At this point, you should have a pretty good list of key words or phrases. What you do next is probably the most important part of planning your essay. You need to pick what you think are three of the best things to talk about and then put them in some kind of logical order. For the purposes of this article, I came up with these three words: Participator, Teacher, and Nurturer. To me, a good parent embodies these three characteristics.

I have ordered the characteristics appropriately, from what I believe is the least important to the most important. This order will vary depending on the individual, so if you don’t agree with the order, that’s perfectly fine. If a different order makes sense to you, and you can back up your reasoning in your essay, fantastic.

“But Phillip,” you ask, “Why is it so important to put them in order?” Glad you asked, grasshopper. It is important to put these words in a logical order now because they will become the topic sentences of each body paragraph of your essay. And if you can logically order three concepts, the body paragraphs of your essay will make much more sense to its reader (not to mention its marker). So, to do well on the Diploma exam, your essay must follow some kind of logical pattern or order.

Write a Complete Topic Sentence

You are almost done the planning stage of your essay; all that is left is to write a complete topic sentence. This is the easy part, trust me. An effective topic sentence will be short and focused. Do not provide any examples, personal observations or descriptions in your topic sentence—leave that for the remainder of the body paragraph. Your topic sentence should be the first sentence of a body paragraph, and should read, for example, as such, “A good parent participates in their son or daughter’s life.”

This topic sentence is short, focused, and effectively begins a body paragraph with the topic of a good parent being a participator in a child’s life. Complete each of your topic sentences in this way and you are setting yourself up for success.

In review, brainstorm for your topic sentences only after completely reading the directions of the exam. Narrow the focus of your essay by reviewing the directions of the essay and cutting out unnecessary information created in the brainstorming process. Put the three best ideas in a logical order.

Finally, write each idea into a short and focused sentence. These topic sentences will serve as the first sentence to each body paragraph.

That’s it! The brainstorming process is finished and now you are just about ready for the actual writing of the essay. I hope you found some valuable information, here and know that online english tutoring is must for good essay writing. Please look forward to the next segment in my Essay Series brainstorming, which will be on how to write an effective thesis statement for your essay.

By Phillip Mattie
CTC Tutor