Jotting down notes will  guide you in organizing the information you read about preparing for financing a college education.

You may want to have paper and pencil close by, but ultimately you are required to use a word processor, such as Microsoft WORD to formulate your ideas.

Take notes to answer the following questions:

-What is the Topic? What is your essay going to be about?
 

-What are the Main Ideas about the topic?  Support your writing by developing a total of three ideas.
(These could be important facts you’d like to describe,  points you’d like to explain, or elements you’d like to define)

-Add three details for each idea, that can further describe, explain, or define each idea?

Once you have completed your note-taking you are ready to map out your information. Go to Step 2.

In Step 1 you started the process of outlining  information for writing an essay. Another way of organizing and summarizing information that you read is by using a concept map.

In Step 2 you will apply your notes to an Essay Map.

This is an interactive graphic organizer that will guide you in developing an outline that includes an introductory statement, main ideas you want to discuss or describe, supporting details, and a conclusion that summarizes the main ideas. The tool offers multiple ways to navigate information including a graphic in the upper right-hand corner that will allow you to move around the map without having to work in a linear fashion.

You can also click the Review My Map link and preview what you have written, return to the map for revisions, or print the completed map.

When you have completed your map make sure to have it printed out.

This will be your guideline for writing your informational essay in Step 3.

My Essay Map

In Step 1 you started the process of outlining  information for writing an essay. Another way of organizing and summarizing information that you read is by using a concept map.

In Step 2 you constructed an Essay Map.

In Step 3  you will follow guidelines to write your essay.

• Decide on your topic
  
• Prepare an outline and/or diagram of your ideas
  
• Write your thesis statement
  
• Write the body

-Write the main points
-Write the subpoints
-Elaborate on the subpoints

• Write the introduction
  
• Write the conclusion
  
• Add the finishing touches