Saint Patricks Day

Topic Sentence
Saint Patrick's Day, an Irish festival celebrated on March 17th each year, has an interesting and often confusing history. Firstly, Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated in honor of the Patron Saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick who has been recognized as the person who drove snakes out of Ireland. However, experts now know that this story is indeed a myth as it is impossible that there were ever any snakes in

Ireland due to the unfavorable weather conditions. In addition, another falsehood of Saint Patrick's Day is that it started in Ireland. The truth is that the holiday actually originated in America, in the 1840s, after many Irish immigrants had fled Ireland as a result of the Great Famine. Finally, and perhaps most bizarrely, most people believe that Saint Patrick was Irish when, in fact, he was British. This is especially interesting due to the historically fractious relationship between the Irish and British. Nevertheless, despite its confusing history, Saint Patrick's Day is still one of the most popular holidays on the calendar. Transition Signal Concluding Sentence

Remember: - A topic sentence should not be too specific or too general. You need to include the topic and a controlling idea. This can be in a number of ways, but you should really ask yourself, When the reader reads this sentence will they know what I am going to tell them about in the rest of the paragraph? If the answer is no, rewrite the topic sentence. - The concluding sentence MUST refer back to the topic sentence. They do not have to be identical but the conclusion should reaffirm the point(s) made in the topic sentence. - Remember to use transitions between sentences. These will give your writing more clarity and will help to organize your ideas and, thus, guide the reader through the paragraph. Good transitions are very important.