Writing effective paragraphs

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Writing Effective Paragraphs

“A mind that is stretched to a new idea never returns to its

original dimension”.-John Dewey

“Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all

those who do not write, compose or paint can manage

to escape the madness, the melancholia, the panic fear

which is inherent in the human situation.”

Graham Greene (1904 – 1991)

Cyril Connolly (1903 – 1974)

“A great writer creates a world of his own and his

readers are proud to live in it. A lesser writer may entice them in for a moment, but

soon he will watch them filing out.”

Parts of an Essay

1.Introduction2.Body3.Conclusion

Stages of Writing

1. Pre-writing2. Drafting/ Writing3. Editing4. Rewriting5. Proofreading

Paragraphs

• A paragraph is a group of sentences that relate to the same main idea.

• Paragraphs are the building blocks of all documents.

• Creating coherent and well-developed paragraphs, therefore, is one of the most important skills for any writer to learn.

The Purpose of Paragraphs

• It aims to aid in communicating ideas by setting off the single topic which is developed or by providing clear distinctions between separate parts of a longer composition.• Good paraphrasing is essential for clarity

and effectiveness.

Characteristics of a Paragraph

1. It contains a topic sentence, expressed or implied.

2. contains a body of thought3. Unified4. Organized5. Well proportion6. Suitable length7. contains transitional aid8. mechanically correct

1. UNITY

• Oneness• Each idea in the paragraph

should clearly support the “one main point” – the topic sentence.

Sample 1

My most frustrating job was cooking for a local fast food restaurant during my junior year in high school. No matter how hard I tried, I never could cook what the menu said because the food company always delivered the wrong food or brought it late. I also was frustrated because I had trouble estimating how much food to cook. Many times we ran short of hamburgers or had to throw away pounds and pounds of French fries.

Sometimes we ate the extra French fries, though, and we’d sit around, joking and having a good time. The worst thing, however, was the condition of my clothes after the meal was over. Even if I hadn’t spilled anything (and I usually had spilled some kind of sauce), my clothes smelled awful. I’d want to go home to change before going any place else. Some of the managers also spilled food and wanted to change, too. No wonder, then, I thought cooking in a fast food restaurant was frustrating.

Revised

My most frustrating job was cooking for a local fast food restaurant during my junior year in high school. No matter how hard I tried, I never could cook what the menu said because the food company always delivered the wrong food or brought it late. I also was frustrated because I had trouble estimating how much food to cook. Many times we ran

short of hamburgers or had to throw away pounds and pounds of French fries. The worst thing, however, was the condition of my clothes after the meal was over. Even if I hadn’t spilled anything (and I usually had spilled some kind of sauce), my clothes smelled awful. I’d want to go home to change before going any place else. No wonder, then, I thought cooking in a fast food restaurant was frustrating.

• Topic Sentence:My job as cook was frustrating.

• Support:Wrong food was delivered.

• SupportI had trouble estimating amounts.

• Support:My clothes were messy.

• Conclusion:Therefore, my job as cook was frustrating.

Order: Method of Development

A.General to Particular (Deductive)

• moving from a generalization to specific ideas that support it • generalizations should be

supported with examples with illustrations and examples.

I assume that man is a religious animal in an anthropological sense. That is, just as men do not exist except in a social setting, so also men do not exist with out religion. To describe the phenomenon of man requires describing the phenomenon of religion. Even though this assumption cannot be completely verified, archeological evidence is quite eloquent. All known cultures have contained religious institutions. Most of them have placed religion at the heart of all other institutions. Moreover, the further we dig back through time, the closer we come to the dividing line between true man and man-like predecessors. One of true man distinguishing marks is that he buries, or otherwise provides for his dead, evincing a concern for the mysteries of life and death. I find it ultimately impossible to account for the care of the dead without hypothesizing the presence of at least rudimentary religious beliefs.

• Note: – The author inferred his assumption that “man is a religious animal” by citing

evidences from anthropological findings

which are verifiable.

b. Development by details• Provide details to support the topic

sentence• your main purpose in providing

details is to make your generalization specific and concrete

Between roughly 1590 and 1690, a host of geniuses, attracted by the scientific method, produced a flowering of research scarcely equaled in any 100 – year period. Among them, in addition to Galileo, Kepler, and Newton, were such giants as Bacon, Boylem Van Leeuwenhok, Huygens, Descartes, Harvey, Halley, and Hooke. The key nature of their role in laying the foundation of science may be judge from a partial list of basic scientific tools associated with their names: the horse-shoe magnet, the thermometer, the chronometer, the diverging lens, the reflecting telescope, the microcaliper, the spring balance and the graph.

• Note how the accumulation of details made the general idea

more specific by enumerating the “host of geniuses” and by showing

how the “produced a flowering research.”

c. Whole to parts• Beginning with a holistic view

then divide the whole into meaningful groups• looking at the big picture then to

the individual pieces

?d. Questions to Answers

• Asking questions can be an effective way of generating ideas.• questions are given for a more organized way of supporting the topic sentence

e. Effect/Cause • Shows the reader the relationship between something that happens and its consequences, or between actions and results. • Can be informative and insightful

e. Effect/Cause

• You can state that the effect is true and examine the cause in detail.• You can state that the cause

is true and examine the effect in detail.• You can show that the entire

cause-effect statement is true.

The life sciences concern the study of plants and animals. The study of living things began because of early man’s concern for his health. He studied, herbs for their medicinal value and as a consequence learned certain things about his body from his primitive attempts at therapy. The Greeks took this simple body of knowledge and vastly enlarged on it. Aristotle’s speculation about natural things let him pioneer in botany, zoology, and embryology . Then, the development of the microscope led to microbiology, which later gave rise to histology, the study of tissues, and cytology, the study of cells.

• Note: The cause “early man’s

concern for his health” had led to the development of the life sciences. From the cause given, there was a reaction of results.

f. Definition

• aims to answer the questions “What is it? Or What do you mean?”

•

Mathematics is the study of numbers and shapes. All mathematics has branched from two main trucks: arithmetic and geometry, or the art of computing and the science of shapes and size. The first was used by the ancient peoples in record keeping; the second was utilized in construction, surveying and mapping the stars. The Greeks developed these two trunks, merged them and fashioned from the number theory, analysis, trigonometry, and algebra. They also invented a method of thought logic and applied it to geometry to calculate the way a falling body accelerates. Newton and Leibnitz later separately invented calculus, another branch of mathematics. In present century, information theory has helped to program electronic computers.

presenting a sequence of events in chronological order describing the spatial relationship between items in the same place