Материал: How to Write a Paragraph

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с. Many famous people have suffered from learning disabilities.

d. Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis was teased and laughed at for his speech delay, stutter, and perceptual problems.

2.

a.Today Americans live longer than ever before.

b.Statistics show that forcing a person to retire can actually impair his or her emotional and physical health.

с Research indicates that workers aged sixty-five to seventy-five perform as well as younger workers in all but heavy physical jobs.

d.Forced retirement according to age does not make sense when we examine the facts.

e.Older workers tend to be more stable than younger workers.

3.

a.In Mexico the folk arts are still thriving.

b.Beautiful bowls and trays made of papier-mache are widely available.

с. Hand-embroidered dresses of pure cotton are common.

d.Throughout the country, pottery making and the fiber arts are alive and well.

e.Every town has its market glittering with hand-wrought silver jewelry.

4.

a.Maggie throws her head back and slaps her thigh.

b.The most amazing thing about Maggie is her laughter.

c.When something strikes her as funny, she first lets out a shriek of surprise.

d.Then she breaks into loud hoots.

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e. When the laughter stops, she shakes her head from side to side and says, “I just love it!”

5.

a.At the University of Michigan, he helped develop a flu vaccine.

b.He served as a consultant to the World Health Organization, a branch of the United Nations that brings medical help to developing countries.

с. Dr. Jonas Salk has contributed much to the cure of disease.

d.After years of research, he finally created the first effective polio vaccine.

e.Dr. Salk is now racing against time to make an AIDS vaccine.

Narrowing the Topic and Writing the Topic Sentence

Before writing a paragraph, go through a process that includes these important steps:

1.Narrowing the topic

2.Writing the topic sentence

3.Generating ideas for the body

4.Selecting and dropping ideas

Arranging ideas in a plan or an outline

Narrowing the Topic

You may be assigned broad writing topics – success, drug use in the schools, a description of a person. Cut the topic down to size and choose one aspect of the topic that interests you.

If you are to write a paragraph describing a person you know, the challenge is to pick someone you would like to write about, someone who interests you and would probably interest your readers. Your purpose is to inform or perhaps entertain them by describing someone.

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Now think about the people you know, and free write, brainstorm, or ask yourself questions. For example, you might ask yourself, “What person do I love, hate, or admire?” “Is there a family member I would like to write about?” “Who is the funniest, most unusual, or most talented person I know?”

Suppose you choose Pete, an unusual person and one about whom you have something to say. But Pete is still too broad a subject for one paragraph; you could probably write pages and pages about him. To narrow the topic further, you might ask yourself, “What is unusual about him? What might interest others?”

Pete’s room is the messiest place you have ever seen; in fact, Pete’s whole life is sloppy. You have now narrowed the topic to just one of Pete’s qualities: his sloppiness.

Writing the Topic Sentence

The next important step is to state your topic clearly in sentence form. The simplest possible topic sentence about Pete might read Pete is sloppy, but you might wish to strengthen it by saying, for instance, Pete’s sloppiness is a terrible habit.

Writing a good topic sentence is an important step toward an effective paragraph since the topic sentence will determine the direction and scope of the body.

The topic sentence should be complete and limited.

The topic sentence must be a complete sentence. It must contain a subject and verb and express a complete thought. Be careful not to confuse a topic or title with a topic sentence. My last job, for example, could not be a topic sentence because it is not a complete sentence but a fragment. However, My Last Job could be a title because topics and titles do not have to be complete sentences.

Each topic sentence is a complete sentence that focuses on one particular aspect of the job. Below are some possible topic sentences for a paragraph entitled My Last Job:

1.My last job in the Complaint Department taught me how to calm down angry people.

2.Working in the Complaint Department left me exhausted by the end of the day.

3.Two years in the Complaint Department prepared me to become an assistant manager.

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PRACTICE 3

Put a check beside each possible topic sentence below. Remember, a topic sentence must be a grammatically complete thought. Rewrite any fragments into possible topic sentences.

Examples

A four-day work week.

Rewrite: Linear Graphics Company should adopt a four-day work week.

Rewrite:

1.Some folk remedies really work.

2.Helping a child learn to read.

3.Police officers who take bribes.

4.The difficult social life of a single parent.

The topic sentence should be limited. It should be carefully worded to express a limited main idea. The more limited the topic sentence, the better the paragraph.

PRACTICE 4

Put a check beside each topic sentence that is limited enough to allow you to write a good paragraph. If a topic sentence is too broad, narrow the topic according to your own interests and write a new, limited topic sentence.

Examples:

This paper will be about my family.

Rewrite: My brother Mark has a unique sense of humour.

Rewrite:

1. Eugene’s hot temper causes problems at work.

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2. Many beer commercials on TV imply that people need to drink in order to have a good time.

3.Child abuse is something to think about.

4.Learning karate increased my self-confidence.

5.Cooking calms my nerves.

PRACTICE 5

Here is a list of broad topics. Choose three that interest you; then narrow each topic and write a topic sentence. Make sure that each topic sentence is a complete sentence and limited enough for you to write a good paragraph.

Generating Ideas for the Body

One good way to generate ideas for the body of a paragraph is brainstorming – freely jotting down anything that relates to your topic sentence: facts, details, examples, little stories. This step might take just a few minutes, but it is one of the most important elements of the writing process.

Brainstorming can provide you with specific ideas to support your topic sentence. Later you can choose from these ideas as you compose your paragraph.

Here, for example, is a possible brainstorm list for the topic sentence – Pete’s sloppiness is a terrible habit: