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Organization of The Paragraph A. Unity: It Means That All The Sentences Refer To The Main Idea, or The

The document discusses several aspects of writing effective paragraphs, including unity, coherence, faulty starts, lack of topic sentences, and underdeveloped ideas. It provides examples to illustrate issues like sentences that do not relate to the main topic, illogical organization, meaningless introductions, and merely listing ideas without explanation. The document emphasizes the importance of ensuring all aspects of a paragraph logically relate to a clear central topic or main point.

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88 views4 pages

Organization of The Paragraph A. Unity: It Means That All The Sentences Refer To The Main Idea, or The

The document discusses several aspects of writing effective paragraphs, including unity, coherence, faulty starts, lack of topic sentences, and underdeveloped ideas. It provides examples to illustrate issues like sentences that do not relate to the main topic, illogical organization, meaningless introductions, and merely listing ideas without explanation. The document emphasizes the importance of ensuring all aspects of a paragraph logically relate to a clear central topic or main point.

Uploaded by

hatyj
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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1.

   ORGANIZATION OF THE PARAGRAPH


A.   Unity: It means that all the sentences refer to the main idea, or the
topic of the paragraph.
       
Exercise 1: The original student paper:
 
I live in a flat with my family. We have two bedrooms and a living room. We have a
garden and we have some flowers there. In weekdays I arrive home at five o'clock
and I have lunch. Then I do my homework and go to bed. I had a computer but now
it doesn't work. I have a brother and a sister and I think I am very lucky to live
with them. Sometimes our relatives visit us. Our flat becomes very crowded
sometimes but I like it.
 
In a unified paragraph, we expect all the sentences to be about the main
idea of the paragraph. The main idea in this paragraph is "the description of
your house". If we examine the paragraph, we see that some sentences do
not describe the house, such as:
 
In weekdays I arrive home at five o'clock and I have lunch.
Then I do my homework and go to bed.
I had a computer but now it doesn't work.
B.    Coherence: It means that the sentences should be organized in a
logical manner and should follow a definite plan of development.
         Exercise 2:
         The original student paper:
       
I live in a house in Izmit. It isn't old or modern. It's a normal Turkish house. We
can say it is near the sea. It takes about 10 minutes to go to the sea side on foot.
We have one bedroom, one living room. We also have two other rooms, too. We use
them as a dining room. Naturally, we have a kitchen, a bathroom, and a toilet. I live
with my parents. And our house has a little garden; my parents spend their time
there to grow vegetables and fruit.
 
First, let's see the order of the ideas:
1.    Where the house is
2.    Type of the house
3.    The location
4.    The rooms in the house
5.    The fact that he lives with his parents
6.    The garden
 
The paragraph is well organized until he says he lives with his parents. It
looks like this idea interrupted his description of the house. It should be put
somewhere else in the paragraph. In the box below, rewrite the paragraph in
the correct order of ideas (you can copy (ctrl+c) and paste (ctrl+v) if you
like.)
 
C.    Faulty Start:

Here are some ways to bore your readers to death (!) when starting a
paragraph/an essay:

You can start with:

1.    a nonsense sentence:

       e.g. I want to talk about X.  

2.    a cliché:

        e.g.  X plays a great role in our lives.


               X is a very important issue in today's world.

       Exercise 3: Here is an example:

I want to talk about friendship. Friends can change your life. So, you must
know who is a real friend. Firstly, your friend must understand you and of course,
you must understand her, too. I think, another important point in a friendship is
confidence. You mustn't tell lies to each other. In addition, you must say
everything about yourself. I think these are important for a friendship. If you
have a friend like this, you don't break up with her because a real friend is not
found easily.

How do we understand that "I want to talk about friendship." is a nonsense


sentence? If we leave the nonsense sentence out, the content and meaning
of the paragraph does not change. Click "SEE" to check it yourself.

D.   Lack of Topic Sentence: Topic sentence is the main idea, your


attitude, your evaluation of something.

Having no topic sentence is bad both for the writer and the reader. First, the
reader has to read the entire paragraph to get to the point. Here, the
example is one paragraph long. What if the example was a paper of 2-3
pages? This is one side. Lack of a topic sentence also causes the writer to
drift away from the topic. He loses control over the writing. He may write 3
sentences about one controlling idea and 1 for the other which causes an
imbalance within the writing.

        Exercise 4: Try to write only a topic sentence for this paragraph.

 
I hate lie. I always try not to tell lies and I want that from my friends, too. I think
it is the most important behavior. I can believe everything my friends say. In
addition, a good friend must say his ideas to me firstly. I mean, he shouldn't talk
about me with other people. Especially about the bad thing, he doesn't have to talk
because it might be wrong. Secondly, a good friend must help me. He must do his
best. He should ask help from me too. If we solve problems together, our
friendship will be better and it will become stronger. Thirdly, the talking time is
important. I can talk with my friends for a long time, and during that time I must
be happy. That's why we should like the same things. In conclusion, trust is the
basics of a friendship.
E.    Development of the ideas: It means that every idea discussed in the
paragraph should be adequately explained and supported through evidence
and examples.
 
We generally believe that people would easily understand us when we write.
Unfortunately, our use of language may not be perfect and our ideas may be 
different. If we want our ideas to be understood, we need to explain them
and give specific examples of each. Listing our ideas  is never enough. See
the example below:
 
       Exercise 5:
 
First of all, a friend mustn't tell lie. He must always tell me the truth and he must
be honest because if there is honesty between two friends, their relationship will
last until death. In addition to honesty, helping or being near a friend on a bad day
is very important. Another point to consider is that he must criticize me if I make
a mistake. 

If we list the ideas, here is what we get:

A friend must:
         not tell a lie
 be there for him on a bad day
 criticize when necessary
The list and the paragraph are the same length because the ideas in the
paragraph are also listed without explanation. This means, the ideas are not
developed. It also lacks a topic sentence. Let’s write the paragraph again 
creating a topic sentence and some explanation of the ideas provided.

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