Organizing Your Ideas! And creating an essay

How to approach an essay Idea: I want to write about skiing and the lessons it taught me. I need to: Come up with a topic sentence/thesis to start Ex: Growing up ski racing has taught me many invaluable skills, other than just how to make great turns Come up with a list of questions that need to be answered When did I start? What things did I learn? Do I still use those skills? When did I finish? What could be something negative? Etc, etc.

Then, I need to organize those questions! So: When did I start? What things did I learn? Do I still use those skills? When did I finish? What could be something negative? Etc, etc. These questions need to be re-written into topic sentences for each body paragraph: For example: The most important skill I learned was how to organize myself. Let’s group some ideas together Possible approaches: organize by skills, organize by experience within that: I can organize by most important to least, or sandwich weak ideas

Body Paragraph: an example Topic: what I learned in ski racing Body paragraph one: organization skills Probably the most important thing I learned from ski racing was how to organize myself better. I needed to learn better organization skills in order to be successful at school, arrange time to spend with friends, and make time for my family. For example, … So, through ski racing, I learned the invaluable skill of organization, which continues to help me to this day. Identify the topic and concluding sentence.

Adding transitions between paragraphs! Also important! Body paragraph 1 is organization skills; body paragraph 2 is independence First: what is a transition? What are transition words? Phrases? SO, I need to make a connection between organization and independence

Transitions! From previous paragraph: For example, … So, through ski racing, I learned the invaluable skill of organization, which continues to help me to this day. The organizational skills that I learned through ski racing also helped to develop my overall independence, which is the next skill I developed … Independence is a key skill that our 21st century requires, and one that was developed through the many trips I took away for ski racing.

Now you try! Body paragraph 2 is independence. Body paragraph 3 is athleticism. From the conclusion of bp 2: Independence is a key skill that our 21st century requires, and one that was developed through the many trips I took away for ski racing. Your turn!