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Questions to ask yourself:

What’s the aim or purpose of the text?

What do I want to achieve?

What does the context demand? (formality/informality)

Who is the recipient? Friends of yours? Complete strangers? A potential employer?

Where is your text to be published? On Facebook, in a letter of application, as a paper, as a speech to be given?

Word limit?

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(1) Find and collect ideas from books, the Internet, magazines, newspapers, radio/TV, etc.

(2) Go through the material and make a note of the sources. What can you use? Pick out what you

need.

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Make a plan & structure your content/material

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Make a plan & structure your content/material

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Here the hard work of formulating sentences, choosing the correct words, and articulating your ideas begins.

Make use of good resources.

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Collins Thesaurus | Synonyms, Antonyms and Definitions

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Online English Thesaurus from Collins: More than 500,000 synonyms and antonyms - With definitions, meanings, phrases, and examples.

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Structure your material, i.e. see how different items can go together and decide what order to put things in. Creating a mindmap is a great tool for this.

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Make sure you use credible and well chosen sources.

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CHECKLIST FOR WRITING

When you’ve finished working on your text, check it over one last time - to see if there’s anything you should or would like to change. Use the following as a guide.

1 Read the text to yourself. Does it make sense or is there anything missing?

2 Have you divided the text into separate paragraphs?

3 Is there an introduction with a    thesis, a main body and a conclusion?

4 Does the title or heading match the text?

5 Do the structure and choice of vocabulary match the genre?

6 What does your text require -   formal or informal language?

Make sure not to mix the two.

7 Check the use of linking words. For example: To begin with .... In addition       .... In conclusion ...

8 Check the use of verbs. For example, the -s form, the use of tenses.

9 Check punctuation and capital    letters.

10 Check spelling.

11 Check overall grammar. For example, the use of tenses, articles,

prepositions, pronouns and adverbs.

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Acknowledging your sources & avoiding plagiarism

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Acknowledging your sources & avoiding plagiarism

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As you research, keep careful notes of your sources. [...]  Be sure to record the following information:

Author

Title

Date of publication

Publisher

Read more below:

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The Citation in the List of Works Cited

Bishop, Wendy. "If Winston Weather Would Just Write to Me on E-mail." College Composition and Communication. 46.1 (1995): 97-103.

The reasons why each citation, regardless of the type of source and the documentation system being used has two parts are simple. Writers acknowledge and document external sources for several reasons. One of these reasons is to give their readers enough information and enable them, if necessary, to find the same source which the paper mentions. Therefore, if we look at the kinds of information provided in the citation (page numbers, titles, authors, publishers, and publication dates), it becomes clear that this information is sufficient to locate the source in the library, bookstore, or online.

When to Cite and Document Sources

The brief answer to this question is "always." Every time you use someone else's ideas, arguments, opinions, or data, you need to carefully acknowledge their author and source. Keep in mind that you are not just borrowing others' words when you use sources in your writing. You are borrowing ideas. Therefore, even if you are not directly citing the source, but paraphrase or summarize it, you still need to cite it both in the text and at the end of the paper in a list of works cited or in a list of references.

The only exception is when you are dealing with what is known as "common knowledge." Common knowledge consists of facts that are so widely known that they do not require a source reference. For instance, if you say in your writing that the Earth rotates around the Sun or that Ronald Reagan was a US President, you do not need to cite the sources of this common knowledge formally.

Avoiding Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a problem that exists not only on college, university, and high school campuses. In recent years, several high profile cases, some involving famous writers and journalists have surfaced, in which the these writers were accused of either presenting someone else work as their own or fabricating works based on fictitious or unreliable research.

With the advent of the Internet, it has become relatively easy to download complete papers. Various people and organizations, sometimes masquerading as "writing consultants" promise students that they would write a paper on any subject and of any level of complexity for a hefty fee. Clearly, the use of such services by student writers is dishonest and dishonorable. If your college or university is like mine, it probably has adopted strict policies for dealing with plagiarizing writers. Punishments for intentional plagiarism are severe and may include not only a failing grade for the class but even an expulsion from the university.

In addition to intentional plagiarism, there is also the unintentional kind. Experience shows that beginning writers' work sometimes include passages which could be called plagiarized because such writers often do not know how to cite and document external sources properly or do not understand that importance of following proper citation practices.

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Bishop, Wendy. "If Winston Weather Would Just Write to Me on E-mail." College Composition and Communication. 46.1 (1995): 97-103. The reasons why each citation, regardless of the type of source and the documentation system being used has two parts are simple. Writers acknowledge and document external sources for several reasons.