What do we know about paragraph writing? Writing Workshop What do we know about paragraph writing?

Topic Sentences What do you think? Why do you think that? State your claim. The very first sentence of a paragraph Identify the main idea of the paragraph. Pick a side. You will defend this side in the rest of your paragraph.

Concrete Details How do you know (your reasons are true)? Readers may not accept your reasons unless you support them with evidence—factual statements, numbers, photographs, or other sources of information that you provide your readers. This is evidence that supports the claim you made in your topic sentence.

Concrete Details These must be facts (provable through observation, if not general information). You must state them strongly (don’t preface this with “maybe” or “perhaps”). Think: “For example…” “According to…”

Commentary Why do you think your reasons support your claim? This is your opinion, interpretation, insight, analysis, evaluation, and/or reflection about a concrete detail. Commentary echoes the focus of your topic sentence. It should strengthen and extend the concrete detail— explaining what you mean, reinforcing the truth of the fact, showing how or why it is important. This should not stray off the main thought.

Commentary You must have more commentary than you have concrete detail. The smallest ratio is 1:2 Don’t write “I think…” (We know this already!) Rather, you can write “This shows that…”

Concluding Sentence So what? This brings the reader back to the original topic without repeating the same words or summarizing. Readers should be able to identify your key points based on concluding paragraphs. This should not include any information that was not discussed in the paragraph.

Concluding Sentence Starters Therefore Thus As expressed Finally Overall Lastly As a result For this reason In general

Characteristics of Effective Concluding Sentences Last sentence of a paragraph Do not introduce new ideas or topics Reaffirms why your argument is correct