The Paragraph Writing Strategy

Parts of a BODY Paragraph Topic Sentence Detail Sentences Clincher

3 Types of Topic Sentences GENERAL CLUEING ALL THREE STATE THE SPECIFIC MAIN IDEA

The Job of a TOPIC SENTENCE States the Main Idea of the paragraph and Gets the reader’s attention Cue Card #3

What does a Topic Sentence Do? Have you ever watched the two minute coming attractions of a movie? Why do they show it? How do they hope you will feel? What do they hope you will do? Why don’t they just show all of the movie? How is a Topic Sentence like the coming attractions?

General Topic Sentences Describe the foreshadowing in “Charles” by Shirley Jackson. The literary element of foreshadowing plays an important role in “Charles” by Shirley Jackson. STATES THE MAIN IDEA

More General Topic Sentences Lynbrook Middle School is a Long Island public school with state of the art technology. Sachem teams have a difficult time winning their games, but Lynbrook teams do not.

A CLUEING Topic Sentence States the Main Idea and Gives a clue.

Clue Words Many Various Differences Several Classes Similarities A number of Categories Advantages Number (“Three”) Groups Disadvantages Kinds Steps Jobs Types Stages Uses Parts Ways Causes Elements Roles Effects Pieces Features Reasons Members Examples Sources Divisions Characteristics Products Components Functions Variety Different Assortment Similar Multitude Different

Clueing Topic Sentences There are several examples of the literary element of foreshadowing which plays an important role in “Charles” by Shirley Jackson. STATES THE MAIN IDEA & GIVES A CLUE

More CLUEING Topic Sentences Lynbrook Middle School is a Long Island public school with many examples of state of the art technology. Sachem teams have a difficult time winning their games, but Lynbrook teams, for several reasons, do not.

A SPECIFIC Topic Sentence States the Main Idea and Gives specific Details

Specific Topic Sentences The literary element of foreshadowing, illustrated through Laurie’s behavior at home, his transparent lies, and his obvious enjoyment in telling stories about Charles, plays an important role in “Charles” by Shirley Jackson. STATES THE MAIN IDEA & GIVES SPECIFIC DETAILS

More SPECIFIC Topic Sentences Lynbrook Middle School is a Long Island public school with state of the art technology in computers, Starboards, and wireless Internet. Sachem teams have a difficult time winning their games, but Lynbrook teams, because of their unstoppable, talented athletes and talented coaches, do not. STATES THE MAIN IDEA & GIVES SPECIFIC DETAILS

Parts of a BODY Paragraph Topic Sentence Detail Sentences Clincher

Discusses one of the details in the paragraph… Gives an answer Detail Sentence Discusses one of the details in the paragraph… Gives an answer with supporting details.

2 Types of Detail Sentences Lead-off Follow-up Cue Card #23

Lead-off Sentence (an answer) Follows a logical sequence Introduces a new detail (an answer) Follows a logical sequence Contains a transition

The Lead-Off The literary element of foreshadowing, illustrated through Laurie’s behavior at home, his transparent lies, and his obvious enjoyment in telling stories about Charles, plays an important role in “Charles” by Shirley Jackson. TS In particular, at home Laurie is extremely rude to his parents and sister.

Detail Sentence Sequences Size Sequence Time Sequence Space Sequence Importance Sequence Chain-Link Sequence Details need to be logically SEQUENCED and using TRANSITIONS

Transitions Chart Cue Card #30 Size Transitions Time Transitions The largest Larger than The smallest The small-sized The tallest The next largest Equal to The next smallest The medium-sized The shortest The smallest Smaller than The largest The large-sized Time Transitions First, Now At the beginning of Before By this time Thereafter, Then, Soon In the middle of In the meantime At the same time, Presently Next, Then At the end of During At that instant, After a short time At last, Later Meanwhile After Soon thereafter, Immediately, Afterwards Simultaneously, First, In the morning, Yesterday, The first Second, Before noon, Today, A more recent Third, In the afternoon, Tomorrow, The most recent Finally, In the evening, The day after tomorrow, In the past, The next day, This year, The earliest In the present, Two weeks later, Next year, The next earliest In the future, Six months later, In the next few years, The most recent Cue Card #30

Transitions Chart (cont.) Space Transitions Behind On the edge of Beside In front West of High Over Toward Around Facing East of Against Under Throughout Near back of North of Alongside Below To the right of Side by side In the center South of Ahead of Beneath To the left of Close to Inside At the Here Low down On top of Next to Outside In There On the bottom At the top Down At the end of On Beyond On the corner By Up Between Above Farther on Importance Transitions The best The most important The first The best The next best Equally important More important than The next best The least best The next most important Most important The worst The least important Cue Card #30

Transitions Chart (cont.) Chain-Link Transitions On the one hand, One example of In the first place, In other words The first On the other hand, For instance, In the second place, In fact, The second Another example, In the third place, Also, The third Again, A further example, Besides, For example, Moreover, For another example, One Because First, Another Since Second, Still another A further As third, In addition, Further, Still, Specifically, In the same way, Furthermore, While More specifically, In fact, Instead In particular, The opposite of _ is_ Additionally, On the contrary side Lastly, The last Indeed, As a result, To the contrary, Similar to _ is_ Last Although Consequently, In contrast, Another similar _ is_ Even though Naturally, In spite of Likewise, Nevertheless, Even if After all, Despite the Similarly, Nonetheless, A dissimilar _ is_ Concluding Transitions To conclude, In summary, To sum up, As you can see, In conclusion, In sum, To summarize, As a result, In brief, Thus, Finally, In short, Therefore, Cue Card #30

The Lead-Off The literary element of foreshadowing, illustrated through Laurie’s behavior at home, his transparent lies, and his obvious enjoyment in telling stories about Charles, plays an important role in “Charles” by Shirley Jackson. In particular, at home Laurie is extremely rude to his parents and sister.

Provides more information Follow-Up Provides more information about the detail.

The literary element of foreshadowing, illustrated through Laurie’s behavior at home, his transparent lies, and his obvious enjoyment in telling stories about Charles, plays an important role in “Charles” by Shirley Jackson. In particular, Laurie is extremely rude to his parents and sister. After arriving home from his very first day of school, he slams the door and shouts. He continues being rude by calling his father “you old dust mop,” and purposely spilling his sister’s milk. F

The Paragraph Express Topic Sentence L F F L F L F Cue Card #26

Which Point of View? Pick it and stick to it. 1 2 3

Pronouns Referring to… First person – The writer __________________ Second person – The reader ________________________ Third person- The others ________________________ I, We You, (You) He, She, They, Things

Tenses Pick it and Stick To it Pick it and stick to it. Cue Card #38

Tense Chart Tense Verb Past painted was painting had painted Present is painting paints Future will paint shall paint Cue Card #38

Detail Sentence’s 5 Requirements Must contain related Information Must be in a logical sequence Must include a transition when it introduces a new detail Must be written from the same (and appropriate) point of view 5. Must be written in the same (and appropriate ) verb tense

University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning 2006 BODY PLAN IT. 358 University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning 2006

Multi-Paragraphs

Parts of a BODY Paragraph Topic Sentence Detail Sentences Clincher

Types of Clincher Sentences General Clincher Sentence Clueing Clincher Sentence Specific Clincher Sentence Cue Card #47 University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning 2002

Concluding Transitions Words that tell the reader that the paragraph is finished. Thus, Therefore Finally, As a result, University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning 2002

General Clincher Sentence Summarizes the main idea of the paragraph. Makes the reader think more about the topic Cue Card #48 University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning 2002

GENERAL CLINCHER SENTENCE Makes your reader dive into deeper thinking on the topic. Therefore, isn’t it obvious to Laurie’s parents that something is just not right, and do they refuse to see the obvious?

Ties everything up neatly with a clueing word CLUEING CLINCHER Ties everything up neatly with a clueing word In other words, there is a variety of hints in the story which leads the reader to believe that Laurie is really “Charles.”

SPECIFIC CLINCHER SENTENCE Like a Quarterback, repeat the count on which the ball will be snapped. Thus, Laurie’s raucous behavior at home, transparent lies, and glee in telling stories about Charles foreshadows that Laurie is “Charles. “

Whole Paragraphs SEQUENTIAL- describing details in a story (a Narrative) or step-by-step manner DESCRIPTIVE EXPOSITORY- Giving facts, reasons, or examples COMPARE and CONTRAST

Steps for Writing a Paragraph Set up a diagram Create the title Reveal the topic Iron out the details Bind it together with a clincher Edit your work