Organizing information Topic sentences and paragraphing Adapted from: 1) Turner, Dorothy. Writing Topic Sentences. University of Ottawa. 2) Academic Writing in English website (http://sana.tkk.fi/awe) 3) Johnson-Sheehan, Richard (Dr.), Purdue OWL, ppt. How to Achieve Coherence at a Micro level (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/ppt/2008_Micro_727.ppt#259,1,How to Achieve Coherence at a Micro Level)

CONTENT Topic sentences Analysing a topic sentence Developing and building paragraphs Presenting information

TOPIC SENTENCES A topic sentence (or a focus sentence) organizes an entire paragraph. Works in two directions simultaneously: relates the paragraph to the essay's thesis, acting as a signpost for the argument of the paper as a whole defines the scope of the paragraph itself. A topic sentence (or a focus sentence) organizes an entire paragraph. Include one in most of your major paragraphs. Although topic sentences may appear anywhere in a paragraph, in academic essays they often appear at the beginning. Think of a topic sentence as working in two directions simultaneously: it relates the paragraph to the essay's thesis, acting as a signpost for the argument of the paper as a whole it also defines the scope of the paragraph itself.

Analyzing a topic sentence Topic sentence = #1 (but not always!) general statement wider in its scope than the rest of the sentences in that paragraph. should be general enough so that it can be supported by specific details in later sentences. Topic sentences should always contain both a topic and a controlling idea. The topic typically occurs before the verb and is what the paragraph is about, while the controlling idea is what you want to say about the topic. The controlling idea should be repeated (preferably, in subject position) in each of the sentences that follow the topic sentence

The topic sentence… …introduces a new topic, The Finnish higher education system consists of universities and polytechnics enumerative (listing) paragraph There are a number of good reasons for immigrating to Finland. or a claim of some sort. Finnish is an easy language to learn

What’s the topic sentence here? Business school professors perennially debate over whether maintaining an old employee is more costly than hiring a new one. The issue has strong proponents on each side. Human resource experts maintain that keeping an old employee requires fewer man hours for training and orientation. However, management gurus insist that having the right person in the right position increases the overall productivity of a team or workgroup. Between these two arguments are the economists who study new hiring practices in a company-specific context.

For more information on topic sentences… http://sana.tkk.fi/awe/cohesion/topsen/index.html

Developing paragraphs Paragraphs can be used to narrate, describe, compare and contrast or analyze information A paragraph is well-structured when every sentence develops the point made in the topic sentence. It must have a single focus and it must contain no irrelevant facts. Every sentence must contribute to the paragraph by explaining, exemplifying, or expanding the topic sentence. "What main point am I trying to convey here?" (topic sentence) "Does every sentence clearly relate to this idea?"

Building paragraphs There are several ways in which you can build good, clear paragraphs: Constant pattern progressive pattern hypertopic pattern Split pattern

Constant This is the most common and easiest form of paragraph development: you simply expand on a general topic sentence using examples or illustrations.

Progressive Process description often follows a chronological sequence

Hypertopic This is used when giving more specific subtypes of the main subject. Could replace a list. superordinate subordinate

Split topic method can be used - one point for A, then 1 point for B

Example – what kind of development? Business school professors perennially debate over whether maintaining an old employee is more costly than hiring a new one. The issue has strong proponents on each side. Human resource experts maintain that keeping an old employee requires fewer man hours for training and orientation. However, management gurus insist that having the right person in the right position increases the overall productivity of a team or workgroup. Between these two arguments are the economists who study new hiring practices in a company-specific context.

Hypertopic? Business school professors perennially debate over Superordinate Hypertopic? subordinate Business school professors perennially debate over whether maintaining an old employee is more costly than hiring a new one. The issue has strong proponents on each side. Human resource experts maintain that keeping an old employee requires fewer man hours for training and orientation. However, management gurus insist that having the right person in the right position increases the overall productivity of a team or workgroup. Between these two arguments are the economists who study new hiring practices in a company-specific context.

Presenting information in a paragraph 1 ’givennew’ principle Introduction to physics or Quantum physics? Familiar information or new information? The brain responds to ’old’ information first. It is easier to process the ’new’ information based on the ’old’ information.

Example – can you find the given-new? Business school professors perennially debate over whether maintaining an old employee is more costly than hiring a new one. The issue has strong proponents on each side. Human resource experts maintain that keeping an old employee requires fewer man hours for training and orientation. However, management gurus insist that having the right person in the right position increases the overall productivity of a team or workgroup. Between these two arguments are the economists who study new hiring practices in a company-specific context.

Notice the Given-New structure Business school professors perennially debate over whether maintaining an old employee is more costly than hiring a new one. The issue has strong proponents on each side. Human resource experts maintain that keeping an old employee requires fewer man hours for training and orientation. However, management gurus insist that having the right person in the right position increases the overall productivity of a team or workgroup. Between these two arguments are the economists who study new hiring practices in a company-specific context. The paragraph was taken from two previous PowerPoints on issues in technical writing. In “Five Principles of Readability,” this paragraph was used to demonstrate the given-new method of sentence structure. In “Intraparagraph Organization,” this paragraph introduced the Topic-Restriction-Illustration (T-R-I) method of paragraph organization. A presenter might point out how these methods of paragraph organization function concurrently. The presenter can emphasize that some systems of organization are not mutually exclusive. Rather, many times, two systems of organization can work in tandem to make a paragraph readable. Click mouse to advance slide. new information = red old information = blue

Presenting info 2 ’light before heavy’ = short simple subject first. Nouns  building blocks of a sentence. Noun phrases  one head noun + a lot of stuff defining it. These can be veeerrrrrrryyyyy long. 7+2 principle – we can’t remember much past the 9th word of a sentence

What’s wrong with this sentence? 1Numerous government agencies have requested new technologies for use in government-certified Explosive Detection Systems (EDS) that screen checked luggage for aircraft 2 We have shipped the Enivironmental Protection Agency's National Homeland Security Research Center in Cincinnati, Ohio an EDS system.

New and improved… We have shipped an EDS system to the Enivironmental Protection  Agency's National Homeland Security Research Center in Cincinnati.

How do I know when to start a new paragraph? You should start a new paragraph : when you begin a new idea or point. to contrast information or ideas. when your readers need a pause. when you are ending your introduction or starting your conclusion. Taken from: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/606/01/

Back to the reference article Switch papers with the person sitting next to you. Choose a paragraph and try to: Identify the topic sentence. Which method was used to develop the paragraph (Detail? Compare/contrast? Process? Combo?) Check how the information is organized in each sentence. Do they follow the givennew, light before heavy principles?

Homework Pick 3 paragraphs in your reference article and go through it for things we looked at today. Hand them in for the next class (scan/original) Text book reading – Chapter 1.10 Organizing paragraphs Chapter 2.10 Academic Style Chapter 3.2 Academic Vocabulary

Practice text 1 Business school professors perennially debate over whether maintaining an old employee is more costly than hiring a new one. The issue has strong proponents on each side. Human resource experts maintain that keeping an old employee requires fewer man hours for training and orientation. However, management gurus insist that having the right person in the right position increases the overall productivity of a team or workgroup. Between these two arguments are the economists who study new hiring practices in a company-specific context.

Practice text 2 1Numerous government agencies have requested new technologies for use in government-certified Explosive Detection Systems (EDS) that screen checked luggage for aircraft 2 We have shipped the Enivironmental Protection Agency's National Homeland Security Research Center in Cincinnati, Ohio an EDS system.