Practice 1: Read the essay in Appendix 4 again and answer the following questions:

1) How many paragraphs are there in the text?

2) Is there a topic sentence in each paragraph? If yes, mark it as T.

3) How many supporting statements are there in each paragraph?

4) Where applicable, mark each supporting statement as

• Ex: Example • A: Analysis

• Ev: Evidence • D: Definition
• Eps: Expansion • G: Guidance
• Epl: Explanation • O: if not belong to the above

5) Is there a concluding sentence in each paragraph? If yes, mark it as C.

6) Is there a link sentence in each paragraph? If yes, mark it as L.

7) Who might be the audience of the essay?

Practice 2: Topic sentence vs. concluding sentence

Underline the topic sentence and double underline the concluding sentence in the following
paragraphs, then pointing out the similarity between the topic and the concluding sentences.

(1) Sulfur dioxide, SO2, is among the most unpleasant and harmful of the common pollutant
gases. Table 18.4 shows the concentrations of several pollutant gases in a typical urban
environment. According to these data, the level of sulfur dioxide is 0.08 ppm or higher
about half the time. This concentration is considerably lower than that of other pollutants,
notably carbon monoxide. Nevertheless, SO2 is regarded as the most serious health hazard
among the pollutants shown, especially for people with respiratory difficulties.

(2) Two analysis methods did not give an identical result, but the difference is quite small. As
shown in Table 1, the average consumption of the 0.05 M AgNO3 solution in the Morh's
method was 10.87 mL, whereas that in the adsorption indicator method was 10.97 mL. The
molar concentration of sodium chloride was 0.05435 M and 0.05485 M, respectively. Since
the difference between these data is only 0.95%, we can use either of the obtained molar
concentrations for other purposes.

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Practice 3:
The following Results and Discussion sections are extracted from a lab report submitted in
semester 20201. Read it carefully and answer the questions that come afterward.

Results
The experimental data is presented graphically in Figure 1. α700 = 0.0007, α750= 0.0125, thus
the reaction rate at 750oC is about 17.9 times greater than the reaction rate at 700oC.

Figure 1. Kinetic plot using Jander's model for Na2CO3- SiO2 reaction

Discussion
An increase in temperature causes an increase in the reaction rate. The two straight line
equations (y= 0.0007x + 0.0024 and y= 0.0125x – 0.016) have trend increase with α700 =
0.0007 and α750= 0.0125. The reaction rate at 750oC is about α750/ α700 =17.9 times greater
than the reaction rate at 700oC. In the Figure1, the experimental points are not on two
straight line equations due to the error of the experiment. The error in this experiment is
within allowable range with R2750=0.8951 and R2700=0.8341. The errors in this experiment
are caused by manipulation in experiments, room temperature.

1) Which sentence might be the topic sentence of the discussion paragraph?

2) Which sentences do not support the topic sentence?

3) How would you edit this Discussion section?

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

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 Practice 4:
Apply the MEAL plan to write a paragraph with the topic
‘Making a burger is easy”.

11

11
Benjamin Chapman, How to Write a Paragraph, Accessed: March 21, 2021. [Online image]. Available:
https://busyteacher.org/22343-how-to-write-a-paragraph.html

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Practice 5:
Write the missing topic sentence and fill in each of the remaining blanks with an appropriate
word or phrase from the suggested list.
(31)________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________ In a strong alkaline environment, β-naphtholate salt is
(32) ______________ into β-naphthol, which cannot dissolve, (33) ______________ to
difficulties in the diazotization reaction. On the other hand, diazonium salts (34)
______________ in a strong alkaline environment. Therefore, the experiment must be (35)
______________ out in a weak acidic or a weak basic environment.

(A) leading (E) transform (I) decomposing

(B) decompose (F) transformed (J) carrying
(C) lead (G) carried
(D) decomposed (H) carry

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