Time: Spend no more than 5 minutes!

Brainstorming was introduced to you in the March 15^th “Getting an A in Writing” article. However, you only have about 5 minutes to read, understand and brainstorm the topic. Using a quick circle outline (3/15/05) is a good fast idea. You can also simply list ideas for writing. Here is an example of Listing:

Time: Spend at least 20 minutes doing this!

After 5 minutes, everyone’s pencil should be moving. If you are still thinking of ideas, you are moving too slowly. I recommend that you begin with a sentence that tells your opinion. This sentence is called a topic sentence. Next, use one of your ideas from the “listing” above as a supporting sentence. Then give an example of it. Repeat this at least 2 more times to make a good paragraph. Finish your paragraph with a concluding sentence. This simply retells the topic sentence using different words. Using the same topic, look at this example:

Topic: Is it important for Japanese students to learn English?

Time: 2-5 minutes

Use a little time at the end to stop and check for mistakes in your writing. You cannot use a dictionary for this, but do your best. The main grammar mistakes to look for are:

Subject and verb agreement (example John are John is )
Spelling mistakes (Engrish English )
Articles (I went to store. I went to the store. )
Capitalization (I visited ireland. I visited Ireland. )