What type of composition is this going to be? Make sure you understand the expectations. Typically, your teacher will provide you with an explanation and lecture on what you are to write. Read this over carefully. Ask your instructor if you have questions.
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2. Choose your topic
Decide what you will write about. Here are suggestions based on different types of compositions.
3. Write your introduction
For every composition except poetry, you will need to introduce either your topic and position (for an essay) or characters, plot and setting (for narrative, short story and play).
4. Develop the 'body' of your work:
**Vary the length of your sentences.In general, use short sentences to emphasize ideas. Use longer sentences to explain, define, or illustrate ideas.
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**Put key words and ideas at the beginning or end of a sentence.
Don't bury a main point in the middle of a long sentence. To emphasize key words, place them at the beginning or (better yet) at the end.
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**Vary sentence types and structures.
Vary sentence types by including occasional questions and commands. Vary sentence structures by blending simple, compund, and complex sentences.
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**Use active verbs.
Don't overwork the passive voice forms of the verb "to be". Instead, use active verbs in the active voice.
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**Use specific nouns and verbs.
To convey your message clearly and keep your readers engaged, use concrete and specific words that show what you mean.
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**Cut the clutter.
When revising your work, eliminate unnecessary words.
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**Read aloud when you revise.
When revising, you may hear problems (of tone, emphasis, word choice, and syntax) that you can't see. So listen up!
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**Actively edit and proofread.
It's easy to overlook errors when merely looking over your work. So be on the lookout for common trouble spots when studying your final draft.
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**Use a dictionary.When proofreading, don't trust your spellchecker: it can tell you only if a word is a word, not if it's the right word.
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5. Rewrite your final copy. If you type your composition, be sure to save a copy for future reference. And who knows, you may submit it and find you have great potential!
Example:
Patriotism
By Alexis de Tocqueville (1835)
There is one sort of patriotic attachment which principally arises from that instinctive, disinterested, and undefinable feeling which connects the affections of man with his birthplace. This natural fondness is united with a taste for ancient customs and a reverence for traditions of the past; those who cherish it love their country as they love the mansion of their fathers. They love the tranquility that it affords them; they cling to the peaceful habits that they have contracted within its bosom; they are attached to the reminiscences that it awakens; and they are even pleased by living there in a state of obedience. This patriotism is sometimes stimulated by religious enthusiasm, and then it is capable of making prodigious efforts. It is in itself a kind of religion: it does not reason, but it acts from the impulse of faith and sentiment. In some nations the monarch is regarded as a personification of the country; and, the fervor of patriotism being converted into the fervor of loyalty, they take a sympathetic pride in his conquests, and glory in his power. There was a time under the ancient monarchy when the French felt a sort of satisfaction in the sense of their dependence upon the arbitrary will of their king; and they were wont to say with pride: "We live under the most powerful king in the world."
But, like all instinctive passions, this kind of patriotism incites great transient exertions, but no continuity of effort. It may save the state in critical circumstances, but often allows it to decline in times of peace. While the manners of a people are simple and its faith unshaken, while society is steadily based upon traditional institutions whose legitimacy has never been contested, this instinctive patriotism is wont to endure.
But there is another species of attachment to country which is more rational than the one I have been describing. It is perhaps less generous and less ardent, but it is more fruitful and more lasting: it springs from knowledge; it is nurtured by the laws, it grows by the exercise of civil rights; and, in the end, it is confounded with the personal interests of the citizen. A man comprehends the influence which the well-being of his country has upon his own; he is aware that the laws permit him to contribute to that prosperity, and he labors to promote it, first because it benefits him, and secondly because it is in part his own work.
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