From: Learn English with Alex [engVid]2009.Parts of a Paragraph - English Academic Writing Introduction.Web site: http://www.engvid.com
1- TOPIC SENTENCE - What are you writing about.
2- BODY -Supporting arguments and details for our topic sentence.
How we are going to organize details?
1-Order of importance2-Chronological ordering of events
3-CLOSING SENTENCE- Reminding the audience what we are writing about.
Review: Topic Sentences
Choose the best among the several topic sentences for each paragraph below.
1. I saw around Velva a release from what was like slavery
to the tyrannical soil, release from the ignorance that darkens
the soul and from the loneliness that corrodes it. In this
generation my Velva friends have rejoined the general
American society that their pioneering fathers left behind
when they first made the barren trek in the days of the
wheat rush. As I sit here in Washington writing this, I can
feel their nearness. (from Eric Sevareid, "Velva, North Dakota")
to the tyrannical soil, release from the ignorance that darkens
the soul and from the loneliness that corrodes it. In this
generation my Velva friends have rejoined the general
American society that their pioneering fathers left behind
when they first made the barren trek in the days of the
wheat rush. As I sit here in Washington writing this, I can
feel their nearness. (from Eric Sevareid, "Velva, North Dakota")
Answer:
The answer Many politicians deplore the passing of the old family-
sized farm, but I'm not so sure. is correct.
sized farm, but I'm not so sure. is correct.
Explanation:
Sevareid argues that farming is destructive as a way of life, no
matter what romantic notions are attached to it. He is not
writing about the productivity of farms, about his own life story
("I grew up on a family-sized farm..."), and his main point is not
that people moved away from the cities in the late the nineteenth
century.
matter what romantic notions are attached to it. He is not
writing about the productivity of farms, about his own life story
("I grew up on a family-sized farm..."), and his main point is not
that people moved away from the cities in the late the nineteenth
century.
2. The first is the wear-and-tear hypothesis that
suggests
the body eventually succumbs to the environmental insults
of life. The second is the notion that we have an internal
clock which is genetically programmed to run down.
Supporters of the wear-and-tear theory maintain that
the very practice of breathing causes us to age because
inhaled oxygen produces toxic by-products. Advocates
of the internal clock theory believe that individual cells
are told to stop dividing and thus eventually to die by,
for example, hormones produced by the brain or by their
own genes. (from Debra Blank, "The Eternal Quest" [edited]).
the body eventually succumbs to the environmental insults
of life. The second is the notion that we have an internal
clock which is genetically programmed to run down.
Supporters of the wear-and-tear theory maintain that
the very practice of breathing causes us to age because
inhaled oxygen produces toxic by-products. Advocates
of the internal clock theory believe that individual cells
are told to stop dividing and thus eventually to die by,
for example, hormones produced by the brain or by their
own genes. (from Debra Blank, "The Eternal Quest" [edited]).
Answer:
The answer There are two broad theories concerning what triggers
a human's inevitable decline to death. is correct.
a human's inevitable decline to death. is correct.
Explanation:
This paragraph is a straightforward description of two possibilities,
neither of which is preferred over the other. In this case, it would
be wrong to mention only one of the possibilities (the "internal
time clock") in the topic sentence, or to treat it as a philosophical
discussion of death itself ("we all must die..."). As for the biology
professor, He or she might very well have given an interesting
lecture, but that has nothing to do with the content of the paragraph.
neither of which is preferred over the other. In this case, it would
be wrong to mention only one of the possibilities (the "internal
time clock") in the topic sentence, or to treat it as a philosophical
discussion of death itself ("we all must die..."). As for the biology
professor, He or she might very well have given an interesting
lecture, but that has nothing to do with the content of the paragraph.
3. The strictest military discipline imaginable is
still looser
than that prevailing in the average assembly-line.
The soldier, at
worst, is still able to exercise the highest
conceivable functions of freedom
-- that is, he or she
is permitted to steal and to kill. No discipline
prevailing
in peace gives him or her anything remotely resembling
this. The soldier is, in war, in the position of a free adult;
in peace he or she is
almost always in the position of a child.
In war all things are excused by
success, even violations
of discipline. In peace, speaking generally, success
is
inconceivable except as a function of discipline.
(from
H.L. Mencken, "Reflections on War" [edited]).
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