Brain researchers have discovered that it takes upward of 13,000 repetitions before a “muscle” develops the memory to repeat a certain motion accurately. Any of you who have tried to master a skill in sports knows exactly what I mean—or at least you should! But oftentimes, the same kid who will diligently (and willingly) heave a round ball at a round hoop a hundred times in a row will shudder in anguish when asked to do the same basic action with his or her writing. Writing is a set of skills that are developed through willingly and diligently practicing form and technique until those writing skills are an intuitive and organic response to the situation at hand. Writing literary reflections and formal essays that clearly demonstrate a thoughtful, insightful, and focused response to what you’ve read is one such skill. Developing this skill will help you immeasurably in your academic career—a career that for most of you still has many years to go!

Reading is an amazing action and an even more amazing experience. We relate to the written word on every level of the human makeup. We read and we are energized. We read and we are repulsed. We agree and disagree with what a writer has to say. Sometime we are moved or required to respond to what we read--and so we write an essay that articulates our response to what we have read. The type of literary essay that you write, be it a personal essay, where the reader understands by your style and tone that it is “you” speaking from an individual point of view, (in which the “I” is retained) or a more formal essay, where you argue the merits or shortcomings of a piece of literature based on its essential literary qualities, (never using “I”) depends upon your audience and their demands. Neither approach is intrinsically better than the other, though the formal essay is required by most teachers and publications--and so “formal” it will be. In this type of writing you are trying to prove a point, illustrate an idea, and/or enlighten your readers. There is no reason to use “I“ in this type of writing. No “I think's.“ No “I feel's“ No “What I find interesting's.“ No “I“ period.

The paragraph is the basic building block of almost all writing. An essay is a construct of great paragraphs built around a single guiding statement. The paragraphs need to flow from that single source and take us on a journey towards a greater sea of understanding. Luckily, it is not rocket science. We will save the complete essay for a later time. For now, I am asking you to work on writing “single paragraph” responses to “particular scenes or passages” from a piece of literature you are currently reading. Because we may not know the book or passage you are referring to, write a brief sketch of the scene to help give us a bit of context for your paragraph.

Below is my ten-step approach to writing a great literary paragraph. It is a bit of a “formula,“ but as formulas go, it's a pretty good one. My hope is that it will ultimately help you find an effective voice and technique to use when writing paragraphs for a full-bodied formal literary essay--especially when the clock is ticking on that SAT essay or looming as an editorial deadline.

1. BROAD THEME: Choose a broad one word theme or idea to write about that you have noticed and “marked“ in your book. For example: racism, fear, family, friendship, etc, and type that in bold as the title of your paragraph!

2. SPECIFIC THEME: Narrow down your theme by writing a phrase or sentence that captures how your chosen theme or idea is used in the piece you are reading: “Friends don't let friends read bad books.” Racism lurks in the heart of every culture.” Etc.

3. TOPIC SENTENCE: Write a “clear, concise, and memorable “ topic sentence. (Don't make it a long sentence!) This is the sentence that “steers“ your reader in the direction you want your paragraph to go. This is what your paragraph will be about. Often, this sentence will use some of the same words or will be your “specific theme“.

4. ONE/TWO PUNCH: Follow your topic sentence with one or two more sentences that add detail or explanation to your topic sentence. These sentences can be (and maybe should) longer sentences.

5. TEXT REFERENCE: Write a sentence that leads into a specific quote or scene from the book that “shows“ how the author uses the theme in the book. This is the “smoking gun.“ It proves that you know--or at least have thought about--the book (more specifically, a certain section of the book) in a meaningful way.

6. SHOW YOUR READER YOUR THOUGHTS: Write as many more sentences as you “need“ (but at least two more) to illustrate and elaborate upon whatever you introduced in your topic sentence. The more narrow and focused your topic sentence, the less you need to write to prove your point.

7. GOOD CLOSING SENTENCE: This sentence either wants to close out your thoughts or “transition“ to a potential new paragraph.

8. RULE OF THREE: Go back and reread what you have written. Find three areas or sentences that you can make better. Nine times out of ten you can find a better topic sentence elsewhere in the paragraph. You can almost always find a more clear and effective way to write a sentence than you wrote on your first try.

9. FINAL EDIT: Read your paragraph out loud. Better yet, have someone else or text speech read it back to you. Make sure it sounds like “you “ speaking at your very best. Don't try to sound smarter than you are. Use good, specific, and interesting vocabulary, but make sure it still sounds real and convincing--and not pretentious and flowery. Get rid of any sentence that is not “directly related“ to your topic sentence. When it doubt, cut it out. Your paragraph wants to be as long as it “needs“ to be, but as short as it “can“ be.

10. PUBLISH: Post your paragraph in your blog and then wait for the wonderful comments. Think about what people write in their critiques of your writing. If they make a good point, then change what needs to be changed. Otherwise, pat yourself on the back for a job well done!