In the last blog post I mentioned that there are 5 components of a 3-paragraph essay. The first of those is “Focus.” The writing rubric I’m using gives maximum points for focus if you have a “sharp, distinct controlling point made about a single topic with evident awareness of task.” Now of course, in writing a book, you will have more than one topic, but you will need to make sure the book addresses a single overarching topic and that each chapter stays on its own specialized topic. How can you ensure this?

• Plan your overall purpose: How do you want your readers to benefit from reading this book?
• What specific subtopics will you be covering in the book? Make an outline. It doesn’t need to be elaborate.
• Ask  yourself “so what?” after you re-read what you’ve written. If your only answer is, “It’s interesting,” that’s not enough. Be especially careful when writing anecdotes. Make sure everything specifically relates to your topic and supports your point rather than detracts from it.

The easiest way to stay on focus with your book is to plan ahead of time instead of spending hours in the revision process. Know your audience, know your topic and know what is realistic to be able to cover in one book.

Stay tuned for the second component: Content.

Over the next few weeks, we will be going back to the basics…we’re talking about 7^th grade Language Arts basics…to review the important facets in writing a non-fiction, informational book. I have to admit, I was one of those students who just wrote off the top of my head. I never did the instructed sequence of writing notes/writing a draft/writing the final copy. I also used to write 10 page papers in college in 2 evenings, so clearly I wouldn’t recommend my writing habits to anyone. Fortunately I was a good enough writer that I’d score good grades anyway. Now that I’m an adult, I take my writing organizational habits much more seriously!

Have you ever seen a PSSA Writing Rubric? I have—lots of them. Over the last few years I have gotten reports on my son’s writing samples as measured against the PSSA writing rubric. After reviewing a client’s “how to” book recently, I found that there was no conclusion. One minute you were learning new information and the next, bam! Blank page. It’s not the first time I’ve seen this. It got me thinking, why do people do this? Is it a lack of planning or do they just get tired and stop?

That incident, coupled with a 3-paragraph essay writing scoring sheet in a yet-to-be filed pile on my desk got me thinking that we could probably all use a little review in the informational writing process. Planning ahead will save you loads of time (and sky-high editing fees). Whether you’re writing a 3-paragraph essay or a 300-page book, the format and expectations are almost identical.

We will be exploring the following 5 points over the coming weeks: Focus, Content, Organization, Style,  and Conventions. Stay tuned.