Tips that will help produce a “strong” paper:

1. When you first write the paper (your 1st draft), don’t worry about how you say what you write or how you punctuate it. Just write it on the paper. After you’ve written all that you want to, go back and organize the paragraphs. What thoughts can be divided into separate ideas? What examples can you provide to make these ideas have support? The more examples the writer can give (just don’t get carried away), the stronger the paper. Check for spelling, punctuation, and tense (ie: in this case, keep it in “objective 3rd” person–“our,” “we,” “one” as opposed to I (1st), you (2nd).

“The crosswalk traffic signal is a nearly universal system for controlling pedestrian traffic, even when the walker is in a foreign land. ”

From this sentence, you know I’ll be telling you about crosswalk signals. You also know that I’ll be explaining that they’re used almost everywhere and why.

“The signals rely in part on the colors red and green, used on most traffic signals worldwide to mean “STOP” in the case of red and “GO” for green.”

Now I’ve further developed the concept of “nearly universal” by telling you that they use the same colors that might be used in a different country.

“In addition, these are combined with pictures that represent the action you should take.”

I’m giving you more information about detail to come. Yes, the lights are red and green but they use pictures, too, to make it even clearer what you should do if you’re trying to decide whether or not to cross the street.

“Not only is the signal red to tell a pedestian he or she shouldn’t walk right now, but it’s a red outstretched palm, the usual hand motion an officer directing traffic uses to stop traffic.”

Not I’m telling what the pictures look like that are used. Even if you don’t know that “ALTO!” means stop in Spanish, you would probably recognize the red outstretched palm.

“The other signal is a green stick figure with one leg stretched out in front of the other to indicate forward motion.”

Again, it gives more description to pictures used. This sentence and the previous one directly follow after me saying “pictures that represent the action you should take”. It’s an orderly progression from the overall idea to details strengthening the idea.

You then wrap up with a closer that restates what you have just told the reader.

“Knowing these practices should make it easier for you to get from Point A to Point B safely even when you can’t read the road signs around the light.”