Topic sentences

Examples:

•One problem students might have with academic writing is organisation.

•Another difficulty for students can be choosing the correct writing style.

•A further challenge for students is often their grammar.

Topic sentence

•One area that many students find difficult is organising their thoughts into a set of coherent flowing ideas, which follow logically from one another. One reason for this is often because of a lack of planning in the pre-drafting stage. According to Brown (2008, p.86), “writing without a plan is a recipe for disaster, and is like trying to drive around an unknown city without a map”. She also highlights the importance of starting the writing process at least a week before the assignment deadline, to allow plenty of time for revisions, re-edits and proof reading.

Write a Paragraph

Choose one of the topics that we brainstormed.

Make sure you have a good topic sentence to start and write a paragraph.

Conclusion

•The conclusion is the last thing the lecturer will read before giving you your mark!!

•A summary of the main ideas put forward in the body.

•Reiterates what was said in the thesis statement.

•What is the logical conclusion from what you’ve said?

•Tries to sum up, prove a point, make recommendations, lead to further actions etc.

•Future implications / directions

low marks in an

assignment• Not answering the exact question

•Lack of logic or structure to the question

•Not providing supporting evidence to the argument

•Providing a descriptive rather than analytical answer. Focussing on facts rather than deeper aspect

Summary

•Plan

•Organise

•Try mindmapping

•Edit rewrite edit rewrite proof read!!!

•Introduction – thesis statement

•Paragraphs – topic sentences

•Conclusion – summing up & restating

Any questions?

•Check out our iLearn Community site for more writing resources

•Come and visit us at Student Learning Support

•Make an appointment with our online booking through our iLearn Community site