Notes

Step 1: Plan what you intend to write
Step 2: Prepare a first draft. As you learned in your "Reading Skills" course, a well-written paragraph should have a topic sentence. Marty wrote his topic sentence and then prepared his draft. As you can see, Marty has some errors to correct, but he has a strong start. A topic sentence contains the main idea in a paragraph. It’s often the first sentence in the paragraph.

Step 3: Edit and correct your first draft. After Marty completed his first draft, he read it over carefully and corrected errors. Notice his attention to spelling errors.

Step 4: Write a final draft. Take a look at Marty’s final draft. His topic sentence is underlined. Read it over carefully. Is there anything you would change if this were your paragraph?

Brainstorming: a writing plan to organize your thoughts and ideas

Writing Process: The steps of the writing process are (1) plan what you intend to write, (2) prepare a first draft, (3) edit, and (4) write a final draft.

Topic Sentence: Contains the main idea of a paragraph

1. A comma separates two complete sentences joined by and, but, for, nor, or, so, and yet.
Bill wanted to go to the movies, but Alice preferred dining out.
Juan was the president of the class, and Cherith was vice president.
He would not arrive on time, so he called to explain why he would be late.
2. A comma separates introductory words or phrases from the main part of the sentence.

As usual, Rico got every question right.
While we waited, Aiden played his guitar.
Waiting for dinner to be served, we watched the sunset.
However, my parents decided to travel anyway.
3. A comma separates items in a list of three or more items. A comma should be placed after each item, including the last item listed before the conjunction. Items in a list can be people, places, things to do, or steps in doing something.

Nicholas, Alyssa, Emma, and Ramon reached the top of the hill after a long hike.
The best three restaurants in town are Jake’s Place, Mario’s, and Lucy’s Diner.
Gregory was instructed to clean out the rain gutters, wash the dog, and mow the lawn.
Connect Part C to Part D, connect Part D to Part A, and place the assembled model on the stand.
Please bring a casserole, a dessert, or a vegetable platter to the covered dish supper.
4. A comma sets off words that add details. The details may be in the middle or at the end of a sentence. When the details are in the middle of a sentence, you must use a pair of commas. These extra words are called parenthetical elements.

We stood in line for tickets to The Marriage of Figaro, a famous opera.
Isabel, who is studying biology, is interested in Jim’s aquarium.
Lawrence, a bookworm, spends hours in the local used bookstore.
In each of these examples, the added information isn’t necessary for the sentence to make sense. In other words, you could leave out the added information without taking away from the meaning of the sentence.

We stood in line for tickets to The Marriage of Figaro.
Isabel is interested in Jim’s aquarium.
Lawrence spends hours in the local used bookstore.
5. A comma separates the names of people being spoken to from the rest of the sentence.

I can’t arrive before noon, Jason.
Carla, will you please set the table for me?
Good night, Mario.
Aunt Sara, what large tomatoes these are!
Use commas carefully. Misplaced commas can cause confusion and may even change the meaning of a sentence. Read the following sentence:

Nora decided to invite Katherine, Mary, Ann, Natalie, and Leah to her party
A semicolon (;) separates two complete sentences that are very closely related. Consider these two sentences:

Earl is a golf addict. He plays every day.
Although it’s correct to write them as two separate sentences with a period at the end of each, you may want to show a closer link between the two ideas. To do that, you could join them by a semicolon:

Earl is a golf addict; he plays every day.
Don’t separate two sentences with a comma. That creates an error called a comma splice. Of course, you could write these two ideas as one sentence. Here are some examples:

Earl is a golf addict who plays every day.
Earl, who is a golf addict, plays every day.
Now, let’s compare all of these examples:

Earl is a golf addict. He plays every day.
Earl is a golf addict; he plays every day.
Earl is a golf addict who plays every day.
Earl, who is a golf addict, plays every day.
The first two examples have two sentences. The first example uses a period to separate the sentences; the second, a semicolon. The last two examples combine the two sentences into one. All four are correct. The choice and arrangement of words is up to you. What you write depends on what you want to tell your reader.