Summer reading... how to write a paper?

Question

I am writing a 4 page paper on a book. its just answering a question about the book not a summery or anything.

How do i write the paper?

Like is there just one paper or do i put it into paragraphs?

Stuff like that.

This is for 9th grade (high school)

Answer 1

Definitely put it into paragraphs.  Write it as if you were writing a paper about any other topic.  The goal is to take your own ideas and translate them into words that will help other people understand exactly what your thoughts are.  

The best way for beginning writers to do this is the 5 paragraph format (of course, for 4 pages, you will need more than 5 paragraphs, but it's a good starting point).  Come up with a topic paragraph that will basically state what you are going to write about and why that topic is important.  You might want to foreshadow your conclusion, but don't state it outright, because you don't want to repeat yourself in the final paragraph.  Then come up with 3 reasons that support your topic.  Since you are going to need more than 5 paragraphs, maybe you could pick one or two of these reasons and write an extra paragraph of detail about the reason (e.g., the reason supports the topic, and here are some important details about the reason that explain why it is relevant).  Then your final paragraph should explain to the reader the "high points" of the paper -- just going over what you have written and drawing some sort of conclusion (which should NEVER be repeated from the first paragraph).

It sounds like it's hard, and sometimes it will be, but just practice.  If you don't like something, keep writing and a lot of times you will come up with one of those moments like "OHHHH I should've said THAT!" and you can go rewrite it.  Also, sometimes writing by hand is good because (1) you can keep what you write and look at it later, even if you don't use it in the final draft and (2) you have longer to think about what you will say next.

Good luck with your paper and don't get discouraged if you can't come up with 4 pages right off the bat.  Just keep trying!