2.  Writing allows us to communicate our thoughts, opinions, and allows us to share our knowledge with others. Our writing also goes to a larger audience because when we write something, people can read it today, tomorrow, or even next year.

3.  We strengthen our writing ability in the following ways: 1. Adhere to sentence rules: subject, predicate, complete thought. 2. Adhere to proper sentence punctuation: no run-ons! 3. Maintain paragraph organization: topic sentence & supporting details. 1. Use descriptive words: adjectives & adverbs. 2. Express personal feelings, opinions, & reflections. 3. Write creative and interesting “hooks” to grab readers’ attention.

4. 1. Take the time to brainstorm ideas: add new details, eliminate unnecessary ones. 2. Make use of appropriate graphic organizer. 3. Create an outline. 4. Make use of the “4 Square Writing” technique 5. Write a rough draft, revise (make better) to correct errors.

5. Select ideas that interest you. The more interested you are in what you write, the better you will do. Consider ideas that would be interesting to your readers. Arrange your ideas in a way that makes sense. Every essay has a clear theme, and the paragraphs support that theme. Each paragraph has a clearly expressed idea (ideas), and the supporting details support this (these) ideas.

6. You should be aware of the sound of your writing, because it effects how others hear it, and how they understand it. All your sentences should have some fluency, or they should all flow together smoothly. You can achieve this effect in the following ways:

7. We sometimes don’t think they are important, but they are: the rules of grammar. Nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, & prepositions shape the way our writing sounds. How well our writing sounds depends very much on our understanding and the proper usage of grammar, spelling, and mechanics.

8. Our actual voices are different than anyone else’s. It is the same with our writing. A writer’s “voice” is the unique way in which we express ourselves on paper. Voice is created by: words on the paper, types of sentences we choose, and the topics we select. You should choose your words carefully, so they say exactly what you mean them to say. Use words that support your ideas and meanings. Don’t be afraid to “go out on a limb” and experiment with difficult vocabulary words, but make sufficient use of a dictionary/thesaurus to determine the appropriate use of the word.