Probably the best-kept secret about writing is that it is a skill that can be mastered. That is right -- you can learn to write a decent paper, learn to do well in writing assignments in school or on the job, no matter how much trouble you may have had with writing before. Writing consists of a series of steps that you can follow. When you finish, you should have an organized, effective paper.

The first step in writing an effective paper is to make a point of some kind. A point is an assertion, a statement that goes beyond a mere fact -- a point has your opinion injected into it. We all make points all day long. If we could gather several points from the conversations around us, we might hear things like: "That movie was

a waste of money"; "Our sociology professor is the best teacher I have ever had"; "I don't vote, because politicians are crooks"; "Going out for an evening is getting to be really expensive." Starting to write means deciding to focus on a point similar to any of these. Foe example, let's take a subject we all know something about: high school proms. When we were in high school, we all went to proms, or talked about people who went to proms, or stayed home from proms. We could make many points about proms; each of you would have some opinion about them. Let's take one point in particular, though. My point is that proms should be banned. If I said this to you as we were talking, I might go on to give you my reasons, or I might refuse to talk about it any more, or I might change the subject. In writing, however, once I made this point, I would have to support it.

The third step in writing a good paper is organizing your supporting details. Without some method of organization, your paper will sound confused and illogical, no matter how good your details are. How do you organize the details? Basically, there are three methods: time order, emphatic order and "if/then" order. Time order means that the details are arranged as they occur in time. For example, if you were writing about a day in your life, you might start with getting up in the morning and end with watching Jay Leno through bleary eyes. My prom paper could be organized this way; I might begin with the preparations for the prom and end with prom night itself. Of course, I would weave in my reasons for banning proms along the way. I might begin with before-prom expenses and end with after-prom drinking.

Let's try to come up with some specific d

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Approximate Word count = 1157
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)