Writing: Body Paragraph Format Writing a One/Two Chunk Paragraph

What is a One Chunk Paragraph? A chunk is one sentence of concrete detail and two sentences of commentary. It is the smallest unified group of thoughts that you can write. So… A one chunk paragraph looks like this: Topic Sentence (TS) Concrete Detail (CD) Commentary (CM) Concluding Sentence (CS)

Breaking down TS, CD, CM and CS Topic Sentence (TS) The first sentence in a body paragraph. This must have a subject and an opinion for the paragraph. A topic sentence should let the reader know what the paragraph will be about. Concrete Detail (CD) Specific details that form the backbone or core of your body paragraphs. CD’s are: facts, examples, evidence, quotes, plot references, etc. Commentary (CM) Your opinion or comment about something. CM’s are: opinions, insight, analysis, interpretation, personal response, feelings, evaluation, reflection. Concluding Sentence (CS) The last sentence in a body paragraph. It is all commentary, does not repeat key words, and gives a finished feeling to the paragraph.

Concrete Detail vs. Commentary Concrete details are facts, and they always come first. Your concrete details will also be known as your parenthetical citations. Your concrete details are where you quote information from other sources to support your thesis. Commentary is an opinion that always follows your concrete detail. You usually have two commentaries for every one concrete detail. 1 CD : 2 CM

Example Because a CD is usually a fact, quotation, paraphrase or summary of someone else’s work, we must give them credit. We do this by putting the author’s last name and the page number we found the information on in parenthesis, BEFORE we put the period at the end of our sentence. Authors create suspense in a story through putting characters into tense or risky situations. In “The Most Dangerous Game”, the author creates a sense of uneasiness between the characters on the boat (Connell 20). This sense of uneasiness between the characters causes the reader to suspect that something bad is going to happen. In causing the readers to fear for what is to come the author has created suspense. If an author uses the device of suspense correctly, a reader is kept guessing throughout the entire story.

What is a Two Chunk Paragraph? Two concrete details instead of one So… A two chunk paragraph looks like this: Topic Sentence (TS) Concrete Detail (CD) Commentary (CM) Concluding Sentence (CS) ***For your essays in this class, your body paragraphs will be two chunk paragraphs, meaning you will have two citations per body paragraph and you will have a minimum of 8 sentences per body paragraph.

Let’s Practice as a class Together we will read an article called “The Undercover Parent.” After reading this article, as a class, we will write a two chunk paragraph explaining the author’s main idea. For homework, you will write another two chunk paragraph agreeing or disagreeing with the author’s claims. *Each student will get their own article to annotate and take home for this assignment.