The document provides guidance on writing a college essay, including the three main steps of the writing process: prewriting, writing, and revision. It then discusses specific techniques for each step, such as brainstorming and outlining for prewriting, and revising for content and grammar. The document also provides tips for writing introduction, body, and conclusion paragraphs, including how to integrate quotes as evidence.

1. How to Write a College Essay

2. Writing is a Process
• The three steps in the process of writing
are:
• prewriting: the process of coming up with
writing topics, researching topics, focusing
topics, and/or organizing a writing topic.
• writing: the process of writing several
drafts of an essay. The main goal of this
step is to get your ideas on paper in an
organized fashion that makes sense to
you.
• revision: the process of rethinking and
rewriting an essay as well as correcting
grammatical, spelling, structural, and
stylistic errors. In other words, you are
making your composition worthy of being
printed, published, or passed (as in a
passing grade).

3. Prewriting
• freewriting: nonstop writing within time or spatial
parameters. For example, writing for ten minutes or
writing one page. This is NOT part of your essay.
• discussion: talking to another person or group of
people about relevant texts, themes, and/or issues.
• brainstorming: making a list of possible topic ideas.
• webbing: connecting topic ideas.
• THE LAZY OUTLINE: This is the most important type
of prewriting in my opinion. In a lazy outline you
briefly plan what points will be made in each
paragraph or section of an essay. This type of
outline will take the following type of form:
•
• Thesis Statement (One sentence stating what your
entire essay will be about)
– Topic Sentence (What your first body paragraph will be
about.)
– Topic Sentence (What your 2nd body paragraph will be
about.)
• Conclusion paragraph

4. Introduction Paragraph
• An introduction is the first paragraph of your essay. It
includes:
•
• ATTENTION GRABBER:
• An attention grabber is exactly what it sounds like: it is
supposed to grab the instructor’s attention in such a
personal, cute, interesting, or creative way, that I want to
give you a good grade.
•
• TRANSITION:
• After your attention grabber, you will probably need to
transition from talking about yourself to talking about the
academic essay topic so that your intro paragraph makes
sense. You can’t change topics like that without easing
into it a bit. The key with transitions is that the shorter
they are the better. You may not even need one, but if
you do, keep it to a word, a phrase, or a short sentence or
two.
•
• THESIS STATEMENT:
• A thesis statement is usually the last sentence of your
introduction paragraph and it states what your entire
essay will be about.

5. Body Paragraphs
• Body paragraphs present the reasons and the evidence that your thesis
statement is correct. Each body paragraph must include:
•
• TOPIC SENTENCE: This sentence is usually the first sentence in a body
paragraph. It states a reason your thesis is correct.
•
• 4-STEP EXAMPLES/EVIDENCE: 4-step examples are the quotations from the
assigned readings you need to integrate into your argument. You can use
quotations you agree or disagree with, stating your reasons afterwards. The
quotes you pick also need to go with your topic sentence.
• Body paragraphs usually have one or two quotes, but you don’t want your
body paragraph to be more quotation than your opinion.
• Don’t end or begin a paragraph with a quote in it.
• Avoid presenting one example right after another (piggy back) with no
arguments in between.
•
• ARGUMENTS: The arguments make up most of the content of a body
paragraph.
• Arguments show your unique and interesting thoughts.. College instructors
are primarily interested in what your arguments say. They are not made up
of any plot, facts, or summary from texts. They are your opinions about the
thesis, topic sentence, and quotes.
• Arguments should present and fully explain 2 or 3 reasons your topic
sentence is correct. Make a convincing argument that makes the
reader/teacher want to agree with what you are saying in your paragraph.

6. How to Put Quotations into Your Body
Paragraphs: 4-Step Examples
• There is a certain tradition you must follow to properly integrate the
evidence into your essay. When you come to a place in your body
paragraph where you want to put a quote, do these four steps:
•
• 1. LEAD-IN: Lead-in to a quote by providing information about where the
quote is from . You can tell me the article title, the author’s full name, or
the author’s credentials.
• 2. PARAPHRASE: Write a short, more generalized summary of the
quotation in your own words. After the paraphrase, put a comma and start
the next step.
• 3. QUOTATION: In quotation marks, copy the words exactly as they
appear in the text. In other words, any words that are not your own, you
put in quotation marks so that you will not get in trouble for plagiarizing.
• 4. CITATION: Provide the necessary information according to the MLA
citation style. Unless you are quoting a web site, a page number is always
needed. Sometimes the author ‘s last name is also required.
• After the 4-step example explain why you agree or disagree with the
quote and how it fits in with what you are trying to argue in your body
paragraph.
•
• Example of a 4-step example: “Parents and Homework” reported that
homework is increasing for those in elementary school, “1997: students 6
to 8 years old do twice as much homework as in 1981” (Clemmit 587).

7. Conclusion Paragraph
• A conclusion paragraph is
misnamed. Do not share any of your
conclusions in the conclusion
paragraph. Conclusions belong in
your body paragraphs. Instead, a
conclusion paragraph is REALLY an
ending paragraph only.
• Restate your thesis as a statement of
success.
• Summarize your main points.
• Finish any personal story from your
attention grabber that needs an
ending.
• Do not contradict yourself.

8. The Proofreading Brain
• Count the “Fs” in the following text but do not count them more than once:
• FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF
SCIENTIFIC STUDENT COMBINED WITH THE
EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.
• How many did you find?

9. Strategies for Proofreading
• Write down 3 news ones to try! 6. Use reference books: grammar
book, MLA, the textbook.
1. Give yourself plenty of time. 7. Read your essay out loud.
Proofreading takes a lot of
8. Read backwards. If you have difficulty
time, but it works! You will find seeing your errors, you may be focusing
and correct a lot of errors, if you too much on the meaning, what you
give yourself a chance to do it. meant to write, instead of what is actually
2. Proofread more than once. there. To distance yourself, begin with
the last sentence, read it out loud., then
3. Trust your instinct. If you read proceed to the second to last
carefully and get confused or feel sentence, and continue until you reach
something does not sound the beginning.
right, there is probably something 9. Ask for help. Proofread yourself several
wrong with the sentence. Reword times first and then you can have a
friend, tutor, or teacher look over what
things so that you feel better you’ve written. Don’t expect them to fix
about them. all your mistakes. They should only be
4. Know your typical mistakes. pointing out your biggest mistakes that
you then fix yourself.
5. Proofread for 1 or 2 errors at a 10. Use the resources your computer offers.
time. Use your spell check. Grammar check
works best if you set it to look for one or
two types of mistakes only.

10. Poetry: What do you think about your
computer now?
• The Ma Sheen is Awl Weighs Write • As soon as a miss steak is maid
• Eye halve a spelling chequer • It nose bee four two long
• It came with my peas see • And eye can put the error rite
• It plainly marcs four my revue • Its rare lea ever wrong
• Miss steaks I kin knot sea • Eye half run this poem thru it
• Eye strike a key and type a word • I am shore your pleased too no
• And weight four it two say • Its letter perfect all the weigh
• Weather eye am write or wrong • My Chequer told me so.
• It shows me strait aweigh

11. The Proofreading Brain Explanation
• Your brain will count the Fs in the big content words that
add meaning to the sentence: “Finished,” “Files,”
“Scientific.” Did you find those three?
• Your brain, however, will skip over the little function
words that make sentences grammatically correct but
add little or no meaning to the sentence. Did you count
the three Fs in the “ofs”?
• Did you find all 6?

12. Revising Your Essay Before Turning It in
for a Grade
• Don’t think of revision as fixing errors but rather as re-thinking and re-writing.
• Go to the free tutorial center on campus.
• Use office hours and student-teacher conferences.
• Your essay was good. A small problem can make a big difference in your grade.
• Go beyond the instructor's comments because every error may not have been
pointed out.
•
• Problem List
• Even though you may make a lot of mistakes when writing, they are usually the
same type of mistakes made over and over. To drastically improve your
completed essay, make a checklist of four or five types of mistakes you tend to
make when writing. By reading, skimming, or computer searches, look only for
one problem at a time throughout the entire essay.
•
• Check List: When your essay is finished and proofread, print out your essay and
look for problems in the following areas of your paper. When you find a
problem, don’t correct it, just write a note on your essay. Look for problems with
your:
• - organization (thesis and topic sentences)
• -evidence in body paragraphs
• -arguments in body paragraphs
• -conclusion paragraph
• Then ….fix a few problems at a time until they are all fixed!
• …And proof-read your essay and fix the sentence-level errors one last time.
•

13. Example Of a Real Student Essay

14. Introduction Paragraph
• After eight hours of a long, stressful, day at work, the anticipation about going to the college
library to study is over. As soon as I arrive at the library, it is packed. I am shocked to find no
computers available, no desks to study on, and chaos of students around. As I look around desperate
for a computer, a male student notices me in distress. He then gets up and asks me if I want to use
his computer since he was leaving. Gratefully I thank him as I sit down and adjust to begin to do my
studies. There is not much desk space due to the belonging of students everywhere: no books, no
work, no studying around. I only see people’s belongings: jackets, sweaters, hats, purses, and other
unexplainable material. The chaos of the library comes from personal use of the computers online.
Groups clutter around to gossip, and some clutter just to watch useless nonsense. College libraries
should only be limited to education and educational use.

15. Body Paragraph
• Parents pay for a grand, successful, and rewarding education for their children; not only parents but self supporting
college students do too. The college library desks are not a place to hang around, meet people, and have fun. Christopher
Caldwell’s “What a College Education Buys” states that parents think of college in terms of providing the training for good
jobs, but that is only a small part of what happens on campuses, “the education kids are rewarded for may not be the same
education their parents think they are paying for” (651). Caldwell is talking about the critical thinking skills emphasized in our
current liberal arts education. However, I think parents would be equally shocked to realize that students often see college as
neither job training or education. They are thinking about college primarily as a way to party and have fun all the time. At our
library, the desks are meant for books, computers and seriously focusing on your studies. To become a success, the desks and
computers provide that place, that area. Tuition and taxpayer’s money pays for the library, its desks, and its computers. This
money is being wasted when college property is used to socialize. Moreover, my tuition money is being mis-managed when I
am unable to find a computer in the library at which to complete my school work or I am unable to concentrate on writing my
paper due to the party atmosphere that surrounds me.

16. Another Body Paragraph
• The chaos of students is distracting for those who make the most of the college library for
studying and research. The computers are taken up by personal use, gossip, watching useless
nonsense. In an article entitled “Welcome to the Fun-Free University,” it criticizes how strict
colleges, “college administrators have been adopting harsh measures in response to unapproved
student behavior” (Weigel 653). I am not saying we should shut down all the fun on college
campuses, but there is a time and a place for fun. Study time in the library is neither. Personal use
should be banned, due to the fact it is more private use of college property. It is very harmful to the
school, staff students and non students. We need to monitor what happens in our college library, it
is not a public library, and there should be standards of care and safety.

17. Conclusion Paragraph
• Isn’t it obvious that college libraries should be limited to only
education and educational use? As a student of Hartnell College, I
value the proper use of the college library as it was meant to be:
for educational success in life. Simple signs posting the rules
followed up by librarians periodically monitoring the computer area
is all it would take to fix this problem.