You have been asked to write a short article for a magazine for international students on student residences in the U.S.
Paso 1 Think about the types of questions you might answer in this article. For example:

Where do the majority of students choose to live?
What options are available for students?
How much does each type of living arrangement cost?

Paso 2 Write a sentence about the most important idea you would want to communicate to international students about student living arrangements in the U.S. This will be your topic sentence. Then, write several sentences that support the point you make in your topic sentence. Organize these sentences and complete the first draft of your brief article.

characteristics of a good topic sentence and its relationship to the rest of the paragraph. You may use the following checklist questions as a guide:Does the topic sentence . . .

come at the beginning of the paragraph?
state the main idea of the paragraph?
focus on only one topic of interest?
make a factual or personal statement?
seem neither too general nor too specific?
attract the attention of the reader?

Paso 4 Make any necessary changes to your paragraph and write the final version below.