Many students lose marks in writing because they don’t develop ideas. They have good ideas, but don’t write enough about each one.

In the game of dominoes, you keep playing until you can’t continue.
Keep writing until you can’t continue, and then start a new paragraph. What do you think about this next paragraph?

Many people think that the Internet will replace books and newspapers because it is cheaper and quicker. As well as that, it is easier to use.

Hmmmm – bad! The writer put two ideas together – “cheaper” and “quicker.” He or she didn’t explain how the Internet is cheaper and quicker. And is the Internet really “easier to use”? The ideas are good , but the development is weak.

Develop Your Ideas

Let’s develop the sentences.

The Internet is cheaper than newspapers, because you can read many newspapers for free on their websites.

The Internet is quicker to bring news and information out. It can take years for a book to be published and reach the bookstore. The information is often out of date.

For me, the Internet is easier to use, because you can find information more quickly and easily than in a big library or in a big set of encyclopedias. You just use a search engine and the results come instantly.

Add a topic sentence.

Add a topic sentence so that the reader knows what is in your paragraph

Many people think that the Internet will replace books and newspapers because it is cheaper, quicker and easier to use. The Internet is cheaper than newspapers, because you can read many newspapers for free on their websites. The Internet is quicker to bring news and information out. It can take years for a book to be published and reach the bookstore. The information is often out of date. For me, the Internet is easier to use, because you can find information more quickly and easily than in a big library or in a big set of encyclopedias. You just use a search engine and the results come instantly.

Transitions and Markers

Finally, lets add some transition words and markers like “First”, “Another point is that..,” “Furthermore,..” etc. Let’s also not repeat “The Internet” every time.

Many people think that the Internet will replace books and newspapers because it is cheaper, quicker and easier to use. First of all, the Internet is cheaper than newspapers, because you can read many newspapers for free on their websites. Secondly, it is also much quicker to bring news and information out. It can take years for a book to be published and reach the bookstore. The information is often out of date. Another important point is that the Internet is easier to use, because you can find information more quickly and easily than in a big library or in a big set of encyclopedias. You just use a search engine and the results come instantly.

What do you want to do now?

• Look at another paragraph in the body
• Look at some model essays
• Look at some topics
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