The four steps in writing your article—or almost anything else—are these:
1.) Plan your article and gather information,
2.) Write your rough draft,
3.) Revise your article, and
4.) Polish your article.
Notice that the first step has two items. You don’t do all your planning before you gather information for it. You do both your planning and your gathering at more or less the same time.
1.) Plan your article and gather information,
2.) Write your rough draft,
3.) Revise your article, and
4.) Polish your article.
Notice that the first step has two items. You don’t do all your planning before you gather information for it. You do both your planning and your gathering at more or less the same time.
It’s important that you keep your thoughts organized. Unless you have a system for organizing your material even as you gather it, you will find yourself trying to sort through a mountain of seemingly unrelated information. Perhaps the most effective way of taking notes and organizing your thoughts at the same time is by using a mind map. By using a mind map, you are gathering, sorting, and making sense of information by the same process your brain uses when it gathers, sorts, and makes sense of information; that is, when the brain is learning.
The first step in planning and gathering for your article is deciding the subject of your article. Choose a topic that interests you, and which you think will interest others. Let’s say you want to write about Charleston, South Carolina. Those three words—Charleston, South Carolina—will be the first thing you write in your mind map. Write it in a rectangle as you see in the illustration below.
Here’s the second step in the process:
Now we’re getting somewhere. Here’s what we do next:
Now let’s go into a little more detail.
Is that all you want to mention in your article? Well, that’s 22 things you want to say, including the title. The title, in sentence form, will become the topic sentence of the first paragraph of your article. That should be enough for now. You may later want to add more.
The next thing you do is turn your mind map into a topic outline. Just as the mind map is patterned after the way your brain works when it’s learning things, the outline will form the pattern for your article. You studied outline form last semester, so outlining your article shouldn’t be too difficult. Just don’t forget to use proper outline form as you see below.
"Charleston, South Carolina: a Living Time Capsule"
I. Introduction
II. The Holy City
III. America’s Largest Historical District
A. Broad and Meeting Streets
B. Old Slave Market
C. Rainbow Row
D. The Battery
IV. Charleston Area Historical Sites
A. Fort Sumter
B. Sullivan’s Island
1. Site of Revolutionary War’s First Major Battle
2. Setting for Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Gold Bug”
V. Folk Culture
A. The Gullah People
1. Origin
2. Dialect
3. Basket Weaving
B. Charleston Ghosts
VI. Famous Gardens and Plantations
A. Middleton Place
B. Drayton Hall
C. Magnolia Gardens and Plantation
VII. Conclusion
The next step in writing your article is turning your topic outline into a sentence outline. Just ask yourself, “What do I want to say about each of the things I mentioned in the outline?” At this point in your writing, don’t worry about grammar, spelling, or even whether you remember what a particular place is called. After all, you’re writing just to get your ideas on paper; that’s why it’s called a rough draft. The revising and polishing come later. (To tell you the truth, the first time I wrote the sentence outline you see on the following page, it contained some mistakes. I corrected them before I handed out this lesson to students. Since no one but you—and perhaps your teacher—has to see your sentence outline, don’t worry about polishing it just yet.)
Charleston, South Carolina, is a living time capsule.
I. In many respects areas in and around Charleston, South Carolina, are a
living time capsule.
II. Charleston is sometimes called “the Holy City” because it’s the
birthplace of three religious denominations: Southern Baptism, Reform
Judaism, and the African Methodist Episcopal Church, as well as the
first Catholic church in America.
birthplace of three religious denominations: Southern Baptism, Reform
Judaism, and the African Methodist Episcopal Church, as well as the
first Catholic church in America.
III. Every one of the 700 buildings south of Broad Street in Charleston was
built before 1850, making this area America’s largest historical district.
built before 1850, making this area America’s largest historical district.
A. The most photographed intersection in the Charleston historical
district is the “Four Corners of Law,” where Broad and Meeting
Streets cross one another.
Streets cross one another.
B. The Old Slave Market, where rural slaves brought their produce for
sale in the city, has become Charleston’s most popular venue for
purchasing souvenirs.
sale in the city, has become Charleston’s most popular venue for
purchasing souvenirs.
C. From Charleston Harbor, one can see Rainbow Row—so called
because the houses on this street facing the harbor display every
color of the rainbow.
color of the rainbow.
D. It was from the Charleston Battery that cadets from the Citadel
fired the first shot of the War Between the States.
fired the first shot of the War Between the States.
IV. Away from Charleston’s famed historical district, visitors can
experience living history in other spots.
experience living history in other spots.
A. Several times a day, a ferry takes history buffs and casual
tourists to historic Fort Sumter, the site of the first battle of the
War Between the States.
tourists to historic Fort Sumter, the site of the first battle of the
War Between the States.
B. Sullivan’s Island, a deceptively sleepy island getaway, has its
own stories to tell.
1. At Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan’s Island, you can see where
American patriots fought the first major battle of America’s
War for Independence.
War for Independence.
2. While Edgar Allan Poe was a soldier stationed at Fort Moultrie,
he fell in love with the island and later made it the setting for his
immortal tale “The Gold Bug.”
V. Interwoven with the aristocracy and history of Charleston are the
contrasting images of folk culture.
A. From the coastal island of the South Carolina Lowcountry a
people called Gullahs come to lilve, work, and hawk their
traditional handcrafts.
people called Gullahs come to lilve, work, and hawk their
traditional handcrafts.
1. The Gullahs are descended from slaves brought from West
Africa.
Africa.
2. Their distinctive dialect is heard almost as often as the
Geechie accent more commonly called the Charleston
brougue.
Geechie accent more commonly called the Charleston
brougue.
3. Their most popular handcraft is the unique Gullah baskets
made from pine straw, sweetgrass, and palm leaves.
VI. The Charleston area’s famous gardens originally were designed
for the enjoyment of plantation owners.
A. Middleton Place, founded in 1741 and opened to the public in
1872, is America’s oldest public garden.
B. Framed by a giant Spanish moss-draped oak, Drayton Hall is
often mistaken for Tara, the antebellum mansion featured in
the movie Gone With the Wind.
C. Magnolia Gardens, founded in 1676, is acclaimed as the
oldest and most beautiful garden in America.
VII. Unless you are fortunate enough to spend the night in one of
Historic Charleston’s bed-and-breakfast mansions, your time
travel into an era of elegance and grace too soon comes to
a close.
travel into an era of elegance and grace too soon comes to
a close.
All you have to do now is look at each sentence and give more details about the topic of that sentence. You may have noticed that some of the sentences in the sentence outline are too long. You may break the overly long sentences into two or more sentences.
With only a little effort with each topic sentence, you will have written 23 paragraphs. Remember, this is only a rough draft. Write from the heart. Revising will come later.
Congratulations! You have written the first draft of your article.
(Mind maps used in this lesson were emended from mind maps generated via Mind Manager©, a copyrighted computer program.)
