In the
following video Alex describes how to structure a well-written paragraph in
English.
Parts of a Paragraph - English Academic Writing Introduction. May 19, 2009 from the site: "engVid - Free English Video Lessons"
He says
that the PARTS OF A PARAGRAPH are:
1)
Topic Sentence
-
It
is what you are writing about.
-
It
should be an interesting topic and you should give your opinion about it.
-
Do
not give details.
2)
Body
-
It
is the heart of your paragraph.
-
It
should include supporting arguments or details that support your topic
sentences.
-
It
should be ordered according to importance or chronology.
3)
Closing Sentence
-
It
has two functions:
·
It
reminds the audience what you are talking about.
·
It
keeps your audience thinking.
EXAMPLES OF TOPIC SENTENCES
Many politicians deplore the passing of the old family-sized farm, but I'm not so sure. 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.
There are two broad theories concerning what triggers a human's inevitable decline to death.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.
We commonly look on the discipline of war as vastly more rigid than any
discipline necessary in time of peace, but this is an error. 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.
