Four Square Writing

1. Four Square Writing Writing a Paper… Paragraph by Paragraph

2. Reasons to live in Barbers Hill • Suppose you are writing a paper to encourage a 6th grader moving to Barbers Hill. • You would need to think of three reasons he/she would like it here. • The Intermediate School is great. • The city has a new park. • There are a lot of activities to do, like sports, fine arts, or church groups.

3. Break each idea into a paragraph. • Now that you have three topics, you can turn each topic into a paragraph. • Let’s break down the first topic – “The Intermediate School is great”

4. Step #1: Write a topic sentence. Barbers Hill Intermediate is a great school for students.

5. The teachers at BHI work very hard to teach in interesting ways. They are also kind and fun. Mr. Kana, the principal loves the students, and even though he is strict, he is also really kind. Step #2: Insert supporting detail sentences. Barbers Hill Intermediate is a great school for students. The other students are nice. People here treat each other positively without bullying.

6. The teachers at BHI work very hard to teach in interesting ways. They are also kind and fun. Mr. Kana, the principal loves the students, and even though he is strict, he is also really nice. Step #3: Add a transition sentence to introduce the next topic (paragraph). Barbers Hill Intermediate is a great school for students. The other students are really nice. People here treat each other kindly without bullying. Not only are the schools great, but the city has a brand new park with lots of things to do.

7. Step #4: Repeat for the other topics.

8. Body Paragraph: Supporting detail #2: Supporting detail #1: Topic Sentence: Transition sentence to next paragraph: Supporting detail #3:

9. Writing the Introduction • Now that you have the body of your paper basically written, it’s time to move on to the introduction. • It’s important to build interest in your paper. Your goal is to make your reader to want to keep reading!!!

10. The Thesis Statement • The most important sentence in the introduction is your thesis statement. • It will be the last sentence of your introduction and will include ALL THREE TOPICS of your paper. • You are basically summarizing your paper in one sentence.

11. The Thesis Statement, con’t. • For our example paper, the thesis statement would read: • Barbers Hill offers a great school for 6th graders, a wonderful new park, and lots of activities to get involved in.

12. Introduction Paragraph: Another interesting fact to draw in your reader: Opening sentence – “the hook” Thesis Sentence – this will be the LAST sentence of your intro.: Further information to draw in the reader. Transition sentence to thesis:

13. Writing the Conclusion • Now that you basically have your paper written, it’s time to wrap things up. • You will want to start your conclusion with a transition that brings closure to your paper: • As you can see, • In conclusion, • Thus,

14. Writing the conclusion, con’t. • At this point, you do not want to add any new information. • You are simply summarizing your paper – you do this by restating your three main topics. • After you wrap-up, it is good to end the paper with a personal/reflective sentence.

15. Writing a conclusion, con’t. • Personal/reflective sentence ideas: • Give advice, “Now that you know ______, you should ___________.” • Ask a question, “Wouldn’t you like to _____________? • Show feeling, “_________________ is amazing. • Discuss the future, “Perhaps, in the future, __________________.”

16. Conclusion Paragraph: Restate topics one, two, and three. It may take you one, two, or three sentences. Depending on how you write it. Use as many squares as you need. Wrap-up sentence that begins with conclusion transition words – this will be the FIRST sentence of the conclusion. Personal/ reflective sentence.