Importance of Good Writing - Essay Example

While writing could be taken as a school activity, much more writing exists in the professional and personal lives. English W130 provided important skills that shape me into a good writer appreciated by Balderrama as that person who knows how to communicate to the audience. In this essay, focus would be on the skills I learnt on development of a thesis statement, paragraph construction and persuasive writing. The good writing skills learnt would enable me to pass across the intended message through writing and consequently achieve the intended goal.

Effectively constructed paragraphs need to pass across the meaning of a general theme giving examples and details. Paragraphing has been used by writers to guide the audience through a claim that would be supported by points and ideas. In a general to specific arrangement, paragraphs should be made up of a topic or general sentence, followed by primary support sentences and finally secondary support sentences. The topic sentence serves to create a familiar map in the reader’s mind with details expected thereafter.

This adopts a top-down approach where multiple detail levels follow a topic sentence, visualized with the consideration of a pyramid. The primary levels and secondary levels give the topic credibility. Bailey (37) advocates for about three primary ideas in a paragraph with at least two secondary ideas for each primary idea. This paragraph provides an appropriate example of an effective paragraph that evaluates the construction of an effective paragraph. The first sentence forms the topic sentence that informs the reader that the paragraph concerns effectively constructed paragraphs.

The fourth, sixth and eighth sentences give the primary ideas while the subsequent sentences give the respective secondary ideas. A thesis statement refers to a, normally, one-sentence summary of the writer’s answer to an academic problem, question or issue. It could be a mapping statement that outlines the major points, indicating how it would be developed in the writer’s argument. Therefore, the thesis statement should be an opinion and not a fact. It should be arguable as it reflects the writer’s answer to a research question or position in a controversial topic.

This means that facts should support a thesis but the thesis need not be a fact in itself. Secondly, it should be focused and not broad. A focused thesis propagates its full development within the scope of the essay. Lastly, it should be specific, not vague (Bailey 6). A vague thesis would suggest that the writer does not have any important contribution to make. To construct a thesis statement, the writer would have to put across personal thoughts in the light of what has already been documented.

Thereafter, it should be double-checked for being an opinion, focused and specific. This will yield an appropriate thesis statement, being an essential component of an academic essay as it summarizes the writer’s argument, giving the reader the context of the argument therein. In this essay, the thesis statement is focused on my opinion that I can effectively communicate through writing, specifically convincing the reader to act based on my objectives. Persuasive writing hinges on the ability of the writer to think logically and come up with a strong argument based on factual information.

The writer seeks to convince the readers to agree with the arguments, values and facts shared in the essay, thus adopt the writer’s way of thinking. This would be achieved by appealing to the emotions of the readers and importantly including facts from reputable sources. Bailey (139) notes that examples strengthen the writer’s attempts to persuade the readers. Counterarguments in essays answer reader’