Unit 3 Flashcards
What are paragraphs?
The building blocks of an essay
The 4 principles in paragraphs
- Unity
- Development
- Organization
- Coherence
How do paragraphs help guide readers through longer pieces of writing?
- Break lengthy discussions of one idea into segments of different emphasis, giving the readers rest stops
- Some consolidate several briefly developed ideas
- Some begin or end pieces of writing or link major segment together
What do most paragraphs contain?
A number of sentences that develop and clarify one idea
How do you make a paragraph fit together?
You need to reflect on the entire essay, then channel your thoughts toward it’s different segment. All paragraphs relate to another and reflect a controlled purpose
What is unity?
A paragraph with unity develops one, and only one, key controlling idea
How to make a paragraph have unity?
- Edit out any stray ideas that don’t fit
- Don’t insert interesting but irrelevant side trips because it will confuse the reader
What is the topic Sentence and what does it do?
- States the main ideas of the paragraph
- Helps guage what information belongs in a paragraph and ensures unity
- informs the reader about the point you are making
- Can be places in various sports from paragraph to paragraph
Topic Sentence Stated FIrst
Open with a topic sentence. The writer reveals the central idea immediately and builds from a solid base
Topic Sentence Stated Last
To emphasize the support and build gradually to a conclusion, end the paragraph with the topic . It creats suspense as the reader anticpiates the summarizing remark
Topic Sentence Stated First and Last
Some paragraphs lead with the main idea and then restate it, in differnt words, at the end. This allows the writer to repeat especially important ideas
Topic Sentences States in the Middle
The sentence falls between one set of sentences that provide background information and a follow up set up development the central idea. This allows the writer to shift the emphasis and at the same time preserve close ties between the two sets.
Topic Sentence Implied
Particularly found in narratice and descriptive writing. All sentences point toward a main idea that the readers must grasp for themselves
Adequate Development
- The author needs to give enogh information to make thier point clearly
- Students should not ask for guidlines on lenght of an essay, but instead on what the reader needs to know
Adequate Development: Do not write paragraphs
- inadequatly
- skimpy: may irritate and stump reader
- useless padding: diluted the main idea
What determins the proper amount of details?
- The reader
- The infomation
- Publication medium
What can detail come from?
- Facts
- Figures
- Thoughts
- Observations
- Steps
- Lists
- Examples
- Personal experiences
Paragraph length
- paragraphs signal natural dividing places that allow the reader to pause and absorb material
- Too little paragraphing overwhelms the reader with long blocks of material
- Too much will create a short coppy effect that may seem to simplistic, even irritation
- To counter the problems the wirter should use several paragraphs for an idea that needs extended development, or to combine several short paragraphs into one
Organization
- An effective paragraph uses a clear pattern of organization so the reader can easily follow the flow of ideas
- When writting a draft the author will try to organize thier work, bu when stuck try and follow the order of the climax
The nine Writing Strategies
- Time Sequences
- Space Sequence
- Process anaysis
- Illustration
- Classification
- Comparison
- Cause and effect
- Definition
- Argument
Order of Climax
- creats a crescendo pattern, starting with the least emphatic details and progressing to the most empatic
- Holds the readers interest by building suspense
- The topic sentence can be placed anywhere
- Do not give the heaviest punch first becasue you will trail off and leave the reader dissatisfied
What is Coherence?
writing that flows smootly and easily from one sentence and paragraph to another
What does Coherrence do?
- Clarifies the relationship among ideas, allowing the reader to grasp connections
- forms sufficent detail and your firm sense of the way your ideas go together
- Signal to the reader with transitions
What are Transitions
Devices that link sentences to one another