Monday, September 25, 2006

INPUT

My lovely students,

After reading your work I would like you to read the explanation below;

The paragraph.

The purpose of this handout is to give some basic instruction and advice regarding the creation of understandable and coherent paragraphs.

What is a paragraph?

A paragraph is a collection of related sentences dealing with a single topic. To be as effective as possible, a paragraph should contain each of the following: Unity, Coherence, A Topic Sentence, and Adequate Development. As you will see, all of these traits overlap. Using and adapting them to your individual purposes will help you construct effective paragraphs.

1. Unity:

The entire paragraph should concern itself with a single focus. If it begins with a one focus or major point of discussion, it should not end with another or wander within different ideas.

2. Coherence:

Coherence is the trait that makes the paragraph easily understandable to a reader. You can help create coherence in your paragraphs by creating logical bridges and verbal bridges.

I like this class

I like this class for three reasons. The first reason is that the teacher is friendly. I think this reason is the most important because if the teacher friendly that can make us more interested on study. In addition, if the teacher friendly between students and teacher we can have a good communication.

The second reason is that there are very few people in this class. Therefore the teacher can spend more time on students who have problems and also can take care of everyone.

The last one is that this class only focuses on writing and grammar so I believe that I can improve my weakness in writing and grammar.

For these four reasons I think I will enjoy in this class.

logical bridges:

* The same idea of a topic is carried over from sentence to sentence
* Successive sentences can be constructed in parallel form

verbal bridges:

* Key words can be repeated in several sentences
* Synonymous words can be repeated in several sentences
* Pronouns can refer to nouns in previous sentences
* Transition words can be used to link ideas from different sentences

3. A topic sentence:

A topic sentence is a sentence that indicates in a general way what idea or thesis the paragraph is going to deal with. Although not all paragraphs have clear-cut topic sentences, and despite the fact that topic sentences can occur anywhere in the paragraph (as the first sentence, the last sentence, or somewhere in the middle), an easy way to make sure your reader understands the topic of the paragraph is to put your topic sentence near the beginning of the paragraph. (This is a good general rule for less experienced writers, although it is not the only way to do it).

4. Adequate development

The topic (which is introduced by the topic sentence) should be discussed fully and adequately. Again, this varies from paragraph to paragraph, depending on the author's purpose, but writers should beware of paragraphs that only have two or three sentences. It's a pretty good bet that the paragraph is not fully developed if it is that short.

Some methods to make sure your paragraph is well-developed:

* Use examples and illustrations
* Cite data (facts, statistics, evidence, details, and others)
* Examine testimony (what other people say such as quotes and paraphrases)
* Use an anecdote or story
* Define terms in the paragraph
* Compare and contrast
* Evaluate causes and reasons
* Examine effects and consequences
* Analyse the topic
* Describe the topic
* Offer a chronology of an event (time segments)

Paragraphs are units of thought with one idea developed adequately. Listed here are some rules of thumb to use when paragraphing. As your writing improves, you'll be able to break these "rules" to meet your own needs. Until then, these suggestions can be helpful:

* Put only one main idea per paragraph.
* Aim for three to five or more sentences per paragraph.
* Include on each page about two handwritten or three typed paragraphs.
* Make your paragraphs proportional to your paper. Since paragraphs do less work in short papers, have short paragraphs for short papers and longer paragraphs for longer papers.
* If you have a few very short paragraphs, think about whether they are really parts of a larger paragraph--and can be combined--or whether you can add details to support each point and thus make each into a more fully developed paragraph.

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