Be coherent

Teachers often criticize student essays because they are not “coherent.” But what does that mean? It means that the development is illogical—it does not make sense. Either the subpoints do not truly support the thesis or the paragraphs themselves do not support the topic sentences as written. If you follow the directions above for developing your outline in such a way that the subpoints do support the thesis statement, you will not get that criticism. Also, make certain that your paragraphs do, indeed, develop your topic sentences and that they follow each other logically. It takes some discipline to do this kind of writing, but it is what is expected by teachers and by readers.