Guide to follow Paper # 1 outline: I. Introduction A. Attention-getter: A quote, a short story, a question, a fact. For example: Twenty five students enrolled in an English 1301 class for May minimest

Guide to follow

Paper # 1 outline:

I. Introduction

A. Attention-getter: A quote, a short story, a question, a fact.

For example: Twenty five students enrolled in an English 1301 class for May minimester. When they enrolled, they probably had a goal to pass this class. However, according to the statistics and data, on average 33% of students do not finish their first year of college.

B. Background Why? What happened? Did those students who fail or drop out end up with a bad instructor? No – they all had the same instructor. Did the 33% of the unsuccessful students get deathly ill? Hopefully not. Another question is: why other students did just fine? Why were they successful? Did they have something that put them ahead? This is a typical scenario not only for college, but for any job and even any life situation. Some people are more successful than others. And it is not always their superior intellect or family money. Then what? Is possible that successful students exhibit certain traits that set them apart from less successful peers?

C. Thesis/Claim. Use the three-part formula: Self-motivation, self-discipline, time management, and utilization of resources are the four important characteristics of a successful student.

II. Body paragraphs

A. Body paragraph:

1. Topic sentence – YOUR OWN words The first critical characteristic for success in college is self-motivation.

2. Explain the topic, provide a little bit more information on the issue for this paragraph, details in the second sentence explain what self-motivation means.

3. Present support, example, illustration

4. Explain the meaning of the support, give your interpretation, explanation, insights, reflections.

5. Present support /example/illustration 2

6. Explain the meaning of the support, give your interpretation, explanation, insights, reflections

7. Close your paragraph by reflecting back on the topic sentence or the thesis of the paper. Provide final insights, overall reflection. YOUR OWN words

Sample paper 1 following the Sample outline

Twenty five students enrolled in an English 1301 class for May minimester. When they enrolled, they probably had a goal to pass this class. However, according to the statistics and data, on average 33% of students do not finish their first year of college. Why? What happened? Did those students who fail or drop out end up with a bad instructor? No – they all had the same instructor. Did the 33% of the unsuccessful students get deathly ill? Hopefully not. Another question is: why other students did just fine? Why were they successful? Did they have something that put them ahead? This is a typical scenario not only for college, but for any job and even any life situation. Some people are more successful than others. And it is not always

their superior intellect or family money. Then what? Is possible that successful students exhibit certain traits that set them apart from less successful peers? Self-motivation, self-discipline, time management, and utilization of resources are the four important characteristics of a successful student.

Twenty five students enrolled in an English 1301 class for May minimester. When they

enrolled, they probably had a goal to pass this class. However, according to the statistics and

data, on average 33% of students do not finish their first year of college. Why? What happened?

Did those students who fail or drop out end up with a bad instructor? No – they all had the same

instructor. Did the 33% of the unsuccessful students get deathly ill? Hopefully not. Another

question is: why other students did just fine? Why were they successful? Did they have

something that put them ahead? This is a typical scenario not only for college, but for any job

and even any life situation. Some people are more successful than others. And it is not always

their superior intellect or family money. Then what? Is possible that successful students exhibit

certain traits that set them apart from less successful peers?

Self-motivation, self-discipline,

time management, and utilization of resources are the four important characteristics of a

successful student.

You will start your first body paragraph with a specific topic sentence. It will announce the first major idea you will be developing. If you look at my thesis above, you will see that the first major characteristic is self-motivation. So your entire first body paragraph will be about self-motivation. Your topic sentence, for example, could be something like this:

The first extremely important quality of successful college students is self-motivation. Then you will develop this idea with some examples and illustrations.

When you are done with this paragraph, make sure you close it with a nice final statement, closing comment. You are now ready to move to the second body paragraph and develop the second characteristic.

Start your second body paragraph with a new topic sentence. Make sure you clearly

state the quality you will be discussing here. Self-discipline is another very important trait of successful people. Now provide some examples, explanations, illustrations of this quality, how it works, how it can be developed. You might even use a negation or a negative example. Describe an individual who is lacking self-discipline and create a scenario of what might happen to that student.

Continue developing your ideas until you are finished with every one of them. Now it is time to write your conclusion.