The Well-Organized Paragraph

Textual Evidence What do you do with it after you’ve found it?

Try this: imagine you are a lawyer in a courtroom… Writing a good paragraph is just like a lawyer presenting evidence in court.

A good paragraph presents a quote (aka textual evidence) and then explains how it supports your overall thesis… …just like the way a lawyer presents a piece of evidence to a judge and jury and then explains how that evidence proves that a defendant is innocent or guilty.

If you were a lawyer, you would not, for example, walk up to a judge and jury, hold up the following in a zip-lock bag, say “Gun,” and then stand there silently.

Evidence & Explanation If you do not Explain: 1.) What the evidence is/says and 2.) How It Proves Your Point, then it really can’t say anything. Evidence is only as helpful as the explanations you provide!

The Six Steps of the Well-Organized Paragraph Introduce Locate Present Explain Interpret Transition

Introduce INTRODUCE the overall topic with the topic sentence. The topic sentence links back to your thesis, but concentrates on one aspect of that major argument. Thesis: Genetic engineering is a bad idea for humanity, because it gives people and governments more power than God intended. Example Topic Sentence: Genetic engineering gives parents power to choose what their child should be like, despite what the child might want.

Locate and Present LOCATE who is speaking/writing and the context of the author’s writing. PRESENT the evidence –just insert the quote after the introductory statement in the LOCATE step. Example: (L) In her commentary on the Duchesneau and McCullough situation, Wendy McElroy is shocked by the partners’ choice to (P) “deliberately engineer a genetic defect into their offspring” (ln.12-13).

Now You’ve Got Some Explaining To Do EXPLAIN the evidence in your own, everyday language. Example: Here McElroy is drawing attention to the fact that these two women chose to genetically engineer a disability into their son.

Interpret INTERPRET the evidence in terms of how this textual evidence proves your point in the topic sentence/thesis. Example: McElroy’s horror points out the strangeness of parents choosing what is “good” for their children before they are born, rather than letting children decide their own future as God intended.

Transition Wrap it Up Nice and TRANSITION to the next piece of evidence Summarize what you just argued and then you can prepare your reader for the next point. Example: Unfortunately, if parents have the opportunity to “create” the perfect child, they will probably take advantage of that possibility regardless of ways the government tries to stop them.

Six Parts All Together: Introduce: Genetic engineering gives parents power to choose what their child should be like, despite what the child might want or what God intended. Locate and Present: (L) In her commentary on the Duchesneau and McCullough situation, Wendy McElroy is shocked by the partners’ choice to (P) “deliberately engineer a genetic defect into their offspring” (ln.12-13). Explain: Here McElroy is drawing attention to the fact that these two women chose to genetically engineer a disability into their future son, Gauvin. Interpret: McElroy’s horror points out the strangeness of parents choosing what is “good” for their children before they are born, rather than letting children decide their own future as God intended. Transition: Unfortunately, if parents have the opportunity to “create” the perfect child, they will probably take advantage of that possibility regardless of ways the government tries to stop them.

Order in the Court! Introduce Locate Present Explain Interpret Transition Evidence-based paragraphs