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Writer's pictureJoe Lu

MSHS Writing Checklist

Overview:

Makeshift Homeschool uses the “Five Paragraph Framework” for all articles. This is the most basic and often the clearest way to communicate ideas. The structure always starts with an introduction, includes three body paragraphs, and ends with a conclusion. Articles can be linked together to cover more material. In this writing checklist we will explain how you can write effectively using the Five Paragraph Framework.


Getting Started:

  • Choose a topic - Use the Creative Learning Process to identify a topic you want to learn about. Your topic should be something you find interesting, and will result in something useful for other people to read.

  • Create Google Doc - Come up with the subject you want to write about and share it with your mentor. Google Docs allows your mentor to help you edit and saves your work on the cloud.

  • Ask Questions - List questions relating to your topic. Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?


Research:

  • Learn - Find resources to learn about your topic using Google, YouTube, Khan Academy, Coursera, your parents, MSHS Slack Group, friends, family, school...and any other sources that you think can help you.

  • Take Notes - As you learn ... copy and paste the sources in links. Under each link created bulleted lists of things you may want to include in your article.


Write:

  • Purpose - Write one sentence explaining the purpose of your article. This will be the first sentence.

  • Points - Write three sentences explaining the three points you want to make. Each sentence will be the first sentence of each body paragraph.

  • Takeaway - Write one sentence explaining the main point you want your reader to take away from your article. This will be the first sentence of your conclusion.

  • Reference - Keep a list of references at the bottom of your article including a link and title.


Basic Checklist:

  • First sentence states the purpose of the article.

  • First paragraph introduces the three main points.

  • Spell Check

  • Capitalize sentences.

  • Paragraphs should be 5 - 15 sentences.

  • The intro and conclusion should not be body paragraphs

  • Read the article out loud to yourself -- Make sure all sentences make sense


Quality Checklist:

  • Delete any sentences or words that don’t add anything to your article

  • If your paragraph can be communicated in a sentence, write it in a sentence and make your paragraph about more than that topic (The things you talk about in a paragraph should be related)

  • Simplify complicated sentences

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