Please prepare for notes (date and title) in your English notebook.

1
Body Paragraphs

• Please prepare for notes (date and title) in your
  English notebook.

2
Basic Essay Structure

• Introduction
• Body Paragraph One (covering 1st reason/point in
  thesis)
• Body Paragraph Two (covering 2nd reason/point in
  thesis)
• Body Paragraph Three (covering 3rd reason/point
  in thesis)
• Conclusion

3
What is a body paragraph?

• Body paragraphs are the meat of your essay, and
  as such are the most important component of your
  essay. In the body paragraphs, you will expand
  upon and provide support for the theme you
  introduced in the first paragraph and will
  provide the details that move that theme forward.

http//students.berkeley.edu/apa/personalstatement
/paragraphs.html
4
Components of a Body Paragraph

• A topic sentence that expands your theme and
  makes a transition from the previous paragraph
• Development of ideas that support your essay's
  theme
• Analysis of how your evidence proves/supports
  your thesis
• An ending sentence that wraps up the paragraph,
  and helps to transition into the next paragraph

http//students.berkeley.edu/apa/personalstatement
/paragraphs.html
5
In other words, body paragraphs should contain

• Main point the topic sentence, which describes
  the focus of the paragraph
• Support explanations, evidence, and examples
  that reinforce the main point
• Transitions connections between this paragraph
  and
• the thesis statement/guiding statement
• nearby paragraphs

6
FirstYour Topic Sentence

• Main point
• All paragraphs should be focused they should
  discuss only one major point (also called a
  controlling idea).
• That point should connect with the overall focus
  of the essay (as described in the thesis
  statement).

7
Body Paragraph Structure

• Basically, the topic sentence summarizes the
  paragraph in the same way that the thesis
  statement summarizes the whole essay.
• The rest of the paragraph supports the topic
  sentence, by explaining it in detail, and then
  giving an example, or citing evidence that
  reinforces it.

8
Support in a Body Paragraph

• The largest part of any body paragraph is the
  support explanations, evidence, and examples.
• It is not enough to just explain an idea. You
  need to show specific evidence that supports it
  as well and explain how it does.

9
Transitions

• Body paragraphs do not exist in isolation. They
  should fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.
  Transitions show the connections between
  paragraphs themselves, and the connections
  between the paragraphs and the overall focus of
  the essay (the thesis statement).