1.

The Supporting Sentences

Supporting sentence develop the topic sentence, they explain or prove the

topic sentence by giving more information about it. One of the biggest problems

in our writing is we often fail to support the ideas. We write something does not

belong or irrelevent. There are several kinds of specific supporting

details/sentences: examples, statistics and quotations.

Practice 1. Identifying irrelevancies

1. Each of the following groups contains one thing that is irrelevant, find it and

cross it out.

a. 2 6 R 8 5

b.

c. + = x
2. Cross out the word in each of the following groups which does not

belong . then write a topic for each list.

 a. Candy, steak, chicken, vegetables, plants (.......................................)

b. Green, dress, yellow, blue, reddish (.................................................)

c. Florida, California, Philadelphia, Russia. (.........................................)

d. Desk, Chair, table, book, cupboard. (................................................)

e. Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Italian, Modern. (.....................................)

f. King, President, Prime minister, secretary (......................................)

g. Tire, horn, steering wheel, Volkswagen . (.......................................)

3. The following paragraphs each contain one sentence that is irrelevant.

Cross out that sentence and be prepared to explain why it does not belong in

the paragraph.

a. Cats make wonderful house pets. They are very loving and friendly. They

are clean, they don’t eat much, so they are not expensive. Many people are

allergic to their hair. They look beautiful.

b. There are several reasons why many American women are waiting until

they are 30 years old or older to have their first baby. Some women have

good jobs and want to continue their careers. Many American couples

have two children. Other women don’t want the responsibility of having

children until they are older. Still others are waiting until they are

financially secure before they start a family.

c. The packaging of many products is very wasteful. Often the packaging is

twice as big as the product. Packaging is used to protect things that are
 breakable. Many food items, for example, have several layers of extra

packaging. Most of these extra layers are absolutely useless.

d. Running has many positive effects on the body. First of all, it increases the

effeciency of the heart and lungs. Running also helps the body develop

greater physical endurance. However, many people prefer swimming.

Finally, it helps the body become more mechanically efficient.

e. The Japanese automobile industry uses robots in many phases of its

production process. In fact, one large Japanese auto factory uses robots in

all of its production stages. Some Japanese universities are developing

medical robots to detect certain kinds of cancer. Another automobile

factory in Japan uses robots to paint cars as they come off the assembly

line, furthermore, most Japanese factories use robots to weld the parts of

the finished car together.

4. Read Each outline below contains at least one unrelated or irrelevanancies idea. Write

the numbers of the unrelated ideas in the blanks on the right.

A. Topic Sentence: This classroom is a mess. un related idea:..................

B. Supporting Ideas

1. In fact, the whole school is a mess!

2. dictionaries and papers on the floor

3. rows of desks out of order

4. writing on the desk tops

5. gum stuck on hall lockers

 6. I keep my locker clean!

A. Topic Sentence: Bowling is the perfect sport.

B. Supporting Ideas unrelated idea.................

1. It develops coordination.

2. I always make it a point to be a member of a bowling team.

3. Bowling helps exercise a large number of muscles.

4. It provides a chance to interact with other team members.

5. It can be played indoors at any hour, during any type of weather

A. Topic Sentence: My favorite food is pizza.

B. Supporting Ideas unrelated idea....................

1. I love the crunchy crust and the melted mozzarella cheese.

2. The best thing I like to drink with it is a giant glass of soda.

3. It’s good either as a snack or as a main course.

4. My brother only likes pizza with anchovies and artichokes on it