Chris' Response to Nicole's Question

Choosing between the five elements of writing we were taught last week during class, I would have to conclude that focus is the most important one to have learned more about.  Personally, all of the other elements have been easier for me to pick up on throughout my school career.  The feeling comes to me that I have been able to put together logical ideas in a progressive order, but I have run into trouble putting all of my thoughts together in a focused manner.  The concepts I had combined on a certain topic made sense, but never seemed to connect to the reader as I would have hoped.  My thought is that the focus is the most important part of a paper.  Organizational and grammatical errors can always be tweaked and fixed, but if there is no focus to present and work towards, then the essay is doomed from the start.  The focus works in direct relation to the thesis and purpose of the paper in the first place.  One cannot create a thesis if they do not even know what the idea, or focus, of what their writing is.  This is why I find importance in learning more about this particular element during my time in Bridge.  Without being helped to pinpoint the goal I'm trying to accomplish in my essay, I would be lost and unable to have a basis and standard to work off of in my college tenure.