5

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)

 “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.”
Cyril Connolly (1903 – 1974)
 Parts of an Essay

1.Introductio
n 2.Body
3.Conclusion
 Stages of Writing

1. Pre-writing
2. Drafting/ Writing
3. Editing
4. Rewriting
5. 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 thought
3. Unified
4. Organized
5. Well proportion
6. Suitable length
7. contains transitional aid
8. 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’dwant to go home
change before going any to
wonder, place
then, I thought cooking in else.
a No
fast food restaurant was frustrating.
• Topic Sentence:
My job as cook was frustrating.
• Support:
Wrong food was delivered.
• Support
I 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