how to not go off topic?

[tram]

how to keep on topic:

1) Use KEY WORDS (or synonyms) from the topic in your topic sentences

2) Have reasonably specific topic sentences to keep you on track

3) Keep paragraphs of a reasonable length so that you don't have a chance to ramble too much

4) End each paragraph with a "end sentence" i.e. link what you have just been saying back to the topic, not only does it show your marker that you are staying on topic but it's a good self check

5) Question the relevance of each example you use (the easiest trap to fall into to go off topic)

hope it helps

[LOVEPHYSICS]

Ok, I've experienced the exact same thing as you do, abd123, so I can totally identify with your frustration over having your work classified as irrelevant or ' not answering the prompt.' This is because I normally tend to overdo things, and luckily, I managed to pull it all together  a few weeks before my final exam. This is the precise advice my tutor gave me:

She told me to read the prompt carefully, but never to overthink it. You would also need to do a 5 minutes plan in the exam just to get your thoughts together. Now this is probably the most important piece of advice she gave, and that is to engage the ' keywords (synonyms)' of the prompt into your topic sentences. Make sure that you finish off your paragraph with a clear, strong sentence that ties back to the contention of your paragraph/topic sentence.

And if you keep getting out of topic, perhaps you should take more time to write, give yourself two to even 3 hours to write a piece if that means you won't get out of topic. Always think before you put your thoughts onto the paper, think about how the sentence ' would engage/answer the prompt' and you will slowly improve over time. Like I have stated above, make sure that you always engage the keywords of the prompt into your topic sentences, and at the rest of your essay as well if you can.


Cheers mate,
                    Best of Luck

[Eriny]

As part of your plan, there are three important things to develop:
1) A Contention
2) Topic sentences for each paragraph.
3) Linking back to your contention.

Unless the piece is creative, everything you write in English will involve an argument of some sort, and that includes language analysis. When you have an argument it's both easier for you and for your reader to keep track and stay focused if you have a contention. A contention is one sentence which summarises what you are going to say. In language analysis, it would be your first or second sentence, in more conventional essays it would usually (but not always) be the last sentence of your introduction. It is absolutely vital that your contention directly answers the essay question (if there is one), or else your entire essay will fail to answer it.

A topic sentence is a sentence at the start of each of your paragraph which every other sentence in your paragraph needs to relate to. You can tell if you are saying something irrelevant if a part of your paragraph doesn't relate to your topic sentence. Usually the topic sentence would be similar to a contention in that it establishes what you intend to argue in the paragraph.

You also need to link your argument back to your contention, usually in the last sentence of each paragraph, just to show how the paragraph contributes to or relates to your contention. Without this, generally readers will have trouble connecting the dots on their own.

I agree with shinny, there is nothing inherently wrong with TEEL and in fact I would recommend it to anyone having trouble staying on track. Eventually staying on track will just become habit and you won't need to refer back to it at all.