Anna, an intermediate-level ELL student from Eastern Europe, is showing great improvement in her English skills, but still doesn't do very well when she is given an essay assignment. She struggles to develop her main idea with enough supporting details and tends to digress in her thoughts. Which single activity would be most effective in helping Anna improve her writing skills?

• A. Assisting her with creating an outline before writing her first draft
• B. Reading more complex texts to imitate style
• C. Memorizing vocabulary
• D. Writing a long essay without planning

Answer: (D)

Outlining before drafting helps organize ideas so the writing has a clear main idea and solid supporting details. For Anna, who struggles to develop a main idea and tends to wander, an outline provides a simple roadmap: identify the main point, list supporting details, decide the order, and plan topic sentences and transitions. This pre-writing step makes the writing process more manageable, reduces digressions, and helps her produce a coherent, focused essay. Reading complex texts or memorizing vocabulary are useful skills, but they don’t directly fix the issue of structure and planning. Writing a long essay without planning would likely reinforce the same problem. So, creating an outline first is the most effective single activity.