A look at paragraph Unity, Coherence, Transitional words and phrases, Parallelism, Development, Intr

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• A look at paragraph Unity, Coherence,
  Transitional words and phrases, Parallelism,
  Development, Introductions, and Conclusions.

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• A paragraph is a group of related sentences which
  may be complete in itself or part of a longer
  piece of writing.
• Most good paragraphs are built around a central
  idea. The exception being a paragraph that
  describes a person or scene.
• Paragraphs break the writing into pieces the
  reader can easily digest. Long paragraphs become
  difficult to understand because the reader
  becomes lost. Short paragraphs are usually
  undeveloped.

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• Topic Sentences are sentences that contain
  general information and may appear at any point
  in a paragraph. They may appear at the
  beginning, the middle, or the end.
• A good paragraph usually has more than one topic
  sentence.
• A topic sentence must be followed by at least two
  supporting sentences. Any less and the paragraph
  will lack proper development.

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• A paragraph is Unified when it supports a single
  central idea.
• An Essay is Unified when all its paragraphs
  support the thesis.
• The best way to achieve Unity in an essay is by
  completing an outline before writing the first
  draft.

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• A paragraph is Coherent when all its sentences
  are logically related to each other.
• An essay is Coherent when the paragraphs and
  individual sentences all relate logically to each
  other.
• Coherence is also being able to go from a topic
  sentence (general) to a supporting detail
  (specific) in a seamless manner.

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• Spatial Order utilizes space to organize the
  paragraph. For example, a person may be
  described from head to toe, or a room may be
  described from east to west.
• Chronological Order utilizes time to organize the
  paragraph. The events are unfolded to the reader
  in the same order they occurred.
• Logical Order utilizes some kind of reason to
  determine how ideas are presented. They may be
  from general to specific, or least important to
  most important.

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• Transitional Phases (see page 66) provide signals
  to the reader about when things happen in a
  paragraph. Without transitional phrases,
  everything happens at once.
• Use Transitional Phrases to link closely
  associated ideas and paragraphs.

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• Parallelism is repetition in consecutive words,
  phrases, clauses, or sentences of identical or
  similar grammatical form to express ideas of
  nearly equal importance.
• Parallelism is also matching words, phrases,
  clauses, or sentence structure to increase
  coherence.

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• They fought to protect farms, crops, and wives.
• They fought to protect their farms, crops, and
  wives.
• They fought to protect their farms, their crops,
  and their wives.
• All of these sentences are in parallel form, but
  the last one is the most emphatic, because of the
  repetition of the key word their to remind the
  reader what they were fighting for.

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• She likes to run, playing piano, and works hard.
• This sentence is not in parallel form.
• She likes to run, to play piano, and to work
  hard.
• (infinitive)
• She likes running, playing piano, and working
  hard. (present participle)

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• A Well Developed paragraph is one that includes
  adequate support for each of the topic sentences
  in the paragraph. Such support may be facts,
  examples, statistics, expert opinion, or any
  other evidence the writer wants to present.
• A Well Developed paragraph has at least two
  supporting sentences for each topic sentence.

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• Patterns of Development
• Narration- Telling a story. Good examples are
  first dates, a typical day at work, an experience
  at a theme park, a wedding, a dining experience.

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• Patterns of Development
• Description- Conveys how something looks,
  sounds, tastes, and feels like. Dont forget to
  describe personality if it is a person. Good
  examples are pets, boy/girl friends, places, and
  cars.

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• Patterns of Development
• Exemplification- Uses specific examples to prove
  a point. To prove teen drivers are dangerous,
  describe the teen next door who totaled his car
  and other teens who race or are careless drivers.

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• Patterns of Development
• Process- Describes how something works or
  occurs. Good examples are how to make a peanut
  butter sandwich, how to change spark plugs, and
  how to change a diaper.

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• Patterns of Development
• Cause and Effect- The results of actions taken.
• For example rude drivers who use closed lanes to
  try and beat traffic actually cause more delays
  when they merge back into traffic. Hence traffic
  if backed up more, which encourages more drivers
  to use the closed lane.

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• Patterns of Development
• Comparison and Contrast- describes the
  similarities and differences between two people,
  places, or things. An example would be comparing
  Apple and IBM computers.
• Compare and contrast may be either point by
  point or subject by subject.

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• Patterns of Development
• Division- takes a single item and breaks it into
  subgroups. For example popcorn comes in many
  varieties caramel corn, movie theatre popcorn,
  microwave popcorn, and cracker-jack.

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• Patterns of Development
• Classification- Separates an item into its
  components, and then it describes each component
  and its function. For example, a car can be
  divided into engine, frame, wheels, and passenger
  compartment.

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• Patterns of Development
• Definition- Describes the qualities associated
  with the thing being defined. For example, what
  are the qualities of a good boss?

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• An introductory paragraph introduces the subject,
  narrows it down, and states the essays thesis.
• It focuses the readers attention and arouses his
  or her interest in the topic.
• It sets the tone for the rest of the essay by
  stating the topic and implies the writers
  attitude toward that topic.

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• Introduction Dos
• Ask a question (one question.)
• Relate an incident (keep it short)
• Use a vivid quotation (no research)
• Offer a surprising fact or statistic
• Provide Background
• Describe the argument your thesis refutes
• Define a word that is central to the subject

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• Introduction Donts
• Dont reach back too far with vague generalities
  or truths such as Throughout Human History.
• Dont start with The purpose of this essay is to
  . . . or refer to the title of the essay in the
  essay.
• Dont apologize for a lack of knowledge about
  your subject.
• Dont start with According to Webster . . .

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• A concluding paragraph summarizes all of the
  important points of the essay for the reader.
• The concluding paragraph is the part of the essay
  the reader is most likely to remember, so it must
  be concise and well developed.

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• Conclusion Dos
• Strike a note of hope or despair
• Give a symbolic or powerful fact or detail
• Recommend a course of action
• Use a Quotation (no research)
• Reflect on the implications of the thesis
• Draw a conclusion based upon the evidence of the
  essay.

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• Conclusion Donts
• Dont copy the thesis into the conclusion.
  Condense the main points of the paper instead.
• Dont start off in a new direction.
• Dont conclude more than can be reasonably
  derived from the evidence presented in the essay.
• Dont apologize or cast doubt upon the essay.

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Writing Strong Paragraphs

• The End