Composition Skills

Tamkeen Zehra Shah

Week3-lec2
Paragraphing
• Why do we break up material into paragraphs?
-A major change in the topic.
-A shift of focus to a subdivision of an existing topic.
-A change in the author’s point of view or opinion about the topic.
-A change of approach to the topic, such as a shift from statistical
analysis to anecdote.
-A change in level of generality, from the more general to the more
specific, or vice versa.
-A shift in time or place, or a shift of speakers, as in the alternation of
speakers in a dialogue.
 -Division of material to set off a point/points for emphasis.
-Division to make the material easier to follow.
-Division to provide variety and interest.(This often prompts an
alternation of short, medium, and long paragraphs.)
-Norms of culture or the literary mode, or the author’s stylistic
sense may suggest that a given paragraph will be too long if it
continues. Modern readers prefer shorter paragraphs and sentences than
did nineteenth-century readers; readers of scholarly journals tolerate
longer paragraphs than do readers of sports and human interest
magazines.
Structure of a composition
Introductory paragraph
• Supports the thesis in three ways:
• 1. It engages readers’ interest with a strong opening sentence. Using an anecdote,
a startling statement, or a quotation to capture readers’ attention can work well as
an opening sentence. The opening should be relevant to your subject and move
your readers quickly and smoothly toward your thesis.
• 2. It supports the thesis by giving relevant background information and context,
such as important facts or theory. This sketch of important background should be
brief, relaying just enough information to help the readers understand why your
subject and thesis are important.
• 3. It introduces the thesis statement and thereby focuses your readers on the
central idea of your paper.
Introductory paragraph - examples
• Identify the three distinct parts of this introductory paragraph:
In the past, most women stayed at home to take care of
domestic chores such as cooking or cleaning. Women's liberation and
feminism have largely transformed this situation and in contemporary
society, women are playing an almost equal role to men in terms of
work. This shift has had significant consequences, both for the family,
for example, by improving quality of life and increasing children's sense
of independence, as well as for society as a whole, by promoting
greater gender equality.
• Identify the three distinct parts of this introductory paragraph:
(1) It is controversial and it is Canadian: the bilingual debate has been going
on for over 100 years, and it continues today. (2) Although Canadians outside of
Quebec agree that francophones should be able to receive federal services outside of
Quebec in their own language, surveys show that the majority do not personally
favor bilingualism for all of Canada (CRIC, 2004). (3)The same survey shows that
these results are reversed for francophones, who are strongly in favor of
bilingualism for all of Canada and somewhat less in favor for their province. (4)In
contrast, overall public support for two official languages continues to be strong
with over 70% of Canadians showing support for citizens receiving federal services
in the language that they speak.(5) Clearly, bilingualism is a policy that needs to be
kept, but it also requires some “revamping” on the government’s part in order to
improve the way it works.
Body paragraphs
• Use the body paragraphs to fully develop the supporting ideas for your thesis statement.
• You can do this by first introducing a sub-topic of the thesis in a topic sentence.
• The topic sentence provides the general topic of the paragraph and the controlling idea.
• It tells readers how the paragraph’s topic/main idea relates to the essay’s core thesis.
• In other words, a topic sentence not only gives a fact but makes a point or gives an
interpretation about that fact, showing how it is relevant or significant to the essay’s core
purpose.
• With your topic sentence in place, you can now develop the body paragraph with
sentences that provide supporting details.
• Each paragraph will have its own topic sentence expressing its central idea.
• Thesis : Clearly, bilingualism is a policy that needs to be kept, but also
requires some “revamping” on the government’s part in order to make it
work
Body para: (1)Many Canadians feel that Canada’s policy of bilingualism is
a good one because it protects francophone culture and benefits the country
as a whole. (2) For example, language is a large aspect of francophones’
culture, so retaining that language is essential to retaining their cultural
identity. (3)Furthermore, Vaillancourt (2004) states that people who have
learned another language have “better developed intelligence” than those
who are unilingual, so it might also be argued that a national policy of
bilingualism supports the general intelligence of Canadians. (4)He goes on
to say that bilingualism also benefits a society collectively by increasing the
market for imports and exports and making it “a receptive place of
immigration for a larger number of potential immigrants” (Vaillancourt,
2004)(5).Thus, there are good reasons to keep Canada’s policy of
bilingualism both for the protection it affords French culture and identity
and for benefits it offers the entire nation.
Transitional Paragraphs
• Used when you want to shift from one sub-topic of your thesis to
another or from a general discussion to a more detailed treatment of an
idea.
• A transitional paragraph sums up, hints at, or foreshadows the material
to come.
• In other words, transitional paragraphs act as signposts that guide
readers to the next part of your essay.
Concluding Paragraph
The conclusion should clearly flow from the material you have carefully
developed in your body paragraphs and thus, it should be more than a
restatement of your thesis.
It should draw conclusions from the points you have made in your paper,
or suggest the implications of them.
An effective concluding paragraph should reinforce the central idea of
your paper and leave your readers satisfied that you have made your case.
One way to ensure that you have written an effective conclusion is to ask,
“Does it strengthen the main message of my paper?”
Paragraph Structure
• PEEL structure (Point, Evidence, Explanation, Link)
• List Structure
• Chain Structure
• Statement-Example Structure
List structure
• List structure uses a sequence of sentences that develop the same
main point, which is usually stated in the lead sentence.
• The sentences following the lead sentence have a similar pattern of
construction.
List structure:
They were a diverse group. There were priests who had brooded over the
problem of a world in eternity and made the startling discovery that a holy
mission summoned them away. There were noblemen in the great courts who
stared out beyond the formal lines of the garden and say the vision of new
empires to be won. There were young men without places who depended on
daring and their swords, and were willing to soldier for their fortunes. There were
clerks in the counting-houses, impatient of the endless rows of digits, who
thought why should they not reach out for the wealth that set their masters high?
There were journeymen without employment and servants without situations
and peasants without land and many others who war and pestilence displaced
who dreamed in desperation of an alternative to home. Through the eighteenth
century their numbers grew and, even more, through the nineteenth.
Oscar Hamlin, Race and Nationality in American Life
Chain Structure
• The sentences form a sequence, such that:
Each sentence is linked in meaning to a previous sentence, usually to
the one immediately before it.
Paragraphs often use list and chain structure in combination (see
paragraph on “The Writing Process,” slide 17)
Chain structure - example
The process of learning is essential to our lives. All higher
animals seek it deliberately. They are inquisitive and they experiment.
An experiment is a sort of harmless trial run of some action which we
shall have to make in the real world, whether it is made in the laboratory
by scientists or by fox-cubs outside their earth. The scientist
experiments and the cub plays; both are learning to correct their errors
of judgment in a setting in which errors are not fatal. Perhaps this is
what gives them both their air of happiness and freedom in these
activities.
Combination of list and chain structure:
1) The writing process has four distinct phases. (2) The first is invention,
which is aided by any number of techniques, including free-writing, mind-
mapping and outlining. (3)In this first stage, it’s important for a writer not to edit
but to let ideas flow and to simply get them down on paper. (4) After invention,
comes the first draft—the stage where the ideas start to take shape. (5) Many
writers use a sentence outline at this stage to see where they need to cut and
where they need to add material. The first draft is also where writers should
develop a tentative thesis to guide the structure of their essay. (6)The next stage
of the process is when both the second and third drafts are done. (7)Here, ideas
and structure are refined, and the thesis is revised until it becomes the unifying
idea of the paper. (8)Finally, comes the last stage, that of editing. (9 Writers
should take care at this stage that all sentence structure and punctuation is
correct, and they should make corrections to documentation format as needed.
(10) Writers often repeat these four phases more than once, or skip a phase and
go back to it, making the writing process more cyclical than linear.
Practice exercise 1
Q) Develop the following paragraph in list structure by adding to it at least three
more examples in sentences that repeat the italicized words

As I jogged along the highway early this morning, I thought of all

the different roads my friends from college were starting on. I thought
of Jan, who was headed for London to major in broadcast journalism.
Practice Exercise 2
Q) Using chain structure, develop the following paragraph by adding at
least three more sentences to it. Be sure that each new sentence is linked
to the one before it.
Lead sentence: In the next hundred years, the exploration of outer
space will undoubtedly change people’s relation to earth. Earth will be
just one of many places where men and women may choose to live.
Statement/Example Structure
• One way to achieve greater cohesion in a paragraph is to craft it following a model of statement,
restatement, example, similarity, contrast, example, and conclusion.
• For example, you are writing a paragraph to a friend in Karachi, trying to explain why you like
winter:
Statement: Winter is my favorite season.
Restatement: Ever since I was a little girl in Sweden, I have preferred cold weather to hot.
Example: Nothing can compare to the smell of fresh snow.
Similarity: And there is nothing so refreshing as the smell of tea, coffee, or hot chocolate on on a
winter morning.
Contrast: But the muggy heat of August makes me lazy.
Example: All I can accomplish in August is to sleep through the day.
Conclusion: But winter in the North, with its log fires and downhill slopes, always makes me
happy.
Practice Exercise 3
Q) Write one paragraph, following the statement/example structure, on
either one of these topics:
-One of the biggest problems that high school students face is peer
pressure.
-Traveling is the best kind of education.