Writing a Paragraph

PARAGRAPHS

A paragraph is defined as a group of sentences that develops one idea.

It has about 5 sentences.
The firs sentence in indented.

Anna is an excellent student. She is

intelligent. She is responsible. Anna always
does her homework and is never late for
class. As a result of her hard work, Anna is
one of the best students in school.

A paragraph has three parts:

●The TOPIC SENTENCE that tells the main idea (controlling idea).
Topic sentence = topic + controlling idea.
All sentences in the paragraph should relate to and develop the controlling idea.

→Which sentence tells us the one idea that this paragraph is about?

●The DETAIL SENTENCES or SUPPORTING IDEAS that support the main idea.

→Which sentences explain and support why Anna is an excellent student?

●The CONCLUSION SENTENCE that reminds us of the main idea. It reminds us of the topic
sentence. The meaning of these two sentences are similar but we need to use different words
on the conclusion sentence.

→Which is the conclusion sentence in this paragraph?

ACTIVITY

Can you identify the three parts in the following paragraph?

Bernard led a healthy lifestyle. He had diabetes but he focused on eating balanced meals, working
out three times a week and drinking plenty of water. He thought the healthy lifestyle was very
important considering his diagnosis.1

Now that we know what a paragraph is, let’s move on to its parts.

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Bernard led a healthy lifestyle – TOPIC SENTENCE
He focused on eating balanced meals, working out and drinking plenty of water – SUPPORTING IDEAS
The healthy lifestyle was very important – CONCLUDING SENTENCE
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The TOPIC SENTENCE and CONTROLLING IDEA

The topic sentence tells the main idea: The main idea is what the paragraph is about. It is the most
important idea in the paragraph.

The topic sentence has two parts:

Topic sentence = topic + controlling idea (or main idea).

What you What you

are writing are saying
about about the
topic

→ What is the topic and the controlling idea in the topic sentence of the paragraph?

Anna is an excellent student

ATTENTION: The topic sentence is NOT NECESSARILY the first sentence in the paragraph. Have a
look at this paragraph. Which is the topic sentence?2

If you hear what sounds like a train roaring straight towards your home, take cover! It may be a
tornado. Tornados are the most violent storms on Earth. These powerful windstorms can spin at
speeds of up to 300 miles per hour. Winds on the planet Saturn can blow up to 1,000 miles per hour!
Tornados can destroy everything in their path, flattening homes and lifting up trees and cars.

The SUPPORTING IDEAS or DETAIL SENTENCES

The detail sentences or supporting ideas explain and support the main idea.
Sometimes, they give examples, reasons or steps in a process.

Anna is an excellent student. She is

intelligent. She is responsible. Anna always
does her homework and is never late for
class. As a result of her hard work, Anna is
one of the best students in school.
In the paragraph about Anna, the supporting ideas give reasons why Anna is an excellent student:
She is intelligent, she is responsible, she always does her homework and is never late for class.

The CONCLUSION SENTENCE

The conclusion sentence reminds us of the topic sentence.
It is the last sentence in a paragraph.
It repeats the controlling idea in the topic sentence but in different words.
It does NOT give new details.

2
The topic sentence is: Tornados are the most violent storms on Earth
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ACTIVITIES

1. Can you identify the three parts in the following paragraph?

Bernard led a healthy lifestyle. He had diabetes but he focused on eating balanced meals, working
out three times a week and drinking plenty of water. He thought the healthy lifestyle was very
important considering his diagnosis.

2. Underline the topic sentence in the following paragraph and cross out the sentence that
doesn’t belong to it.

Hail is a type of icy precipitation that falls from the sky during a thunderstorm. Hail can occur
even on warm days. It is formed high up in the atmosphere. Snow is another form of
precipitation. Tiny frozen bits of ice collide with cold water droplets. The water freezes and
makes another layer of ice. The hailstone is bounced up and down in the clouds, forming new
layers of ice. Finally, when it becomes too heavy, it falls to earth.

3. For each topic below, select the item that could serve as topic sentence.

A. How to train a cat

a) This paragraph is about how to train a cat.
b) Before a cat learns anything, it first teaches its owner a lesson in humility.
c) Everything you wouldn’t have thought to ask about training a cat.
d) Training a cat takes physical stamina.
e) Animal training is a complicated subject.

B. Changes in patients as they settle into convalescent homes

a) Americans are learning how to grow old gracefully.
b) The outside world seems to shrink when seen through the window of a convalescent home.
c) Closing up a home and moving to a small room can make even an extrovert turn inward.
d) It is important to look at the changes in patients’ attitudes as they settle into convalescent
homes.
e) The increasing delight in daily conversation as patients become accustomed to life in a
convalescent home.

C. Scuba diving
a) The excitement of scuba diving.
b) My childhood fascination with scuba diving
c) It is very interesting to experience scuba diving
d) The sport of scuba diving has always excited me.
e) Since I was a child, I’ve been fascinated by scuba diving.

4. Think of at least one supporting sentences for the topic sentences in ex. 3

5. Rearrange the following groups of sentences to form a paragraph and underline the
topic sentence. What information do the supporting sentences give?3

a) Later on, people began to write on pieces of leather, which were rolled into scrolls.
b) In the earliest times, people carved or painted messages on rocks.
c) In the Middle Ages, heavy paper called parchment was used for writing and books were
laboriously copied by hand.
d) With the invention of the printing press in the middle of the fifteenth century, the modern
printing industry was born.
e) Some form of written communication has been used thorough the centuries.

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 6. Can you provide a concluding sentences for the paragraph you have ordered in ex. 5.

Important Terms
Paragraph: a group of sentences that focus on a single idea
Topic: the one thing a paragraph is about
Topic sentence: the sentence that tells what the paragraph is about
Supporting details: those sentences that explain the topic sentence

7. For each list of items, select the choice that best describes that grouping.

1. for money, for experience, to meet people

a. reasons to attend a party
b. reasons to get a part-time job
c. reasons to apply for loans
d. reasons to date

2. U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, Federalist Papers, Twenty-Fifth

Amendment
a. policies
b. historical events
c. historical documents
d. party politics

3. Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury

a. asteroids
b. solar systems
c. galaxies
d. planets

8. After reading each of the following paragraphs, select the choice that best represents
the topic of the paragraph.

1
You’ve probably heard that older men die before older women virtually
everywhere in the world. In the United States, women are expected to live
an average of 80.4 years, while men live only 75.2 years. Sociologists attribute
many factors to this trend. For example, men have higher testosterone
levels than women, which may make men more likely to abuse alcohol and
tobacco, drive aggressively, and engage in other life-threatening behaviors.
Men also choose riskier types of work and become involved in wartime aggression,
which are connected to men’s decreased life expectancy. Studies
also show that women are less likely to experience life-threatening illnesses
and health problems than men are.
—Carl, Think Sociology, p. 211

a. women’s health
b. men and risky behaviours
c. testosterone and age
d. men’s life expectancy

2
Many people look back to the 1950s as the golden age of the traditional
family, but was it really? Teenage pregnancy rates were higher in
the 1950s than they are today, although a higher proportion of teenage
mothers were married (primarily due to “shotgun weddings,” a colloquialism
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that developed from the idea that many fathers of pregnant girls
had to force, possibly with a weapon, a man to marry his daughter once
she became pregnant). Many families were unable to survive the traumas
of war and its aftermath, and the divorce rate rose from one in six in
1940 to one in four marriages in 1946. Although many families prospered
in the years following World War II, many others suffered from economic
hardship. In 1948, Newsweek reported that most of the 27 million schoolchildren
in the United States were badly in need of medical or dental
care, while more than 900 thousand children were malnourished.
—Kunz, THINK Marriages & Families, p. 8

a. teenage pregnancy rates

b. the effect of war on divorce
c. family problems in the 1950s
d. golden age

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In the past few years, social networking sites such as MySpace,
Facebook, and Twitter have become hugely popular across all ages.
Despite the opinions of some that young people are in danger of turning
into crouching androids glued to their computers, research shows that
the majority of friendships are still maintained offline. Offline friendships
are characterized by more interdependence, depth, understanding,
and commitment, but online friendships can gain some of these qualities
with time. Most online friends tend to be rather cautious about
disclosing personal information. However, this does not apply to people
with a negative view of themselves and others; they instead seem
to share more information, possibly in an attempt to become more
self-confident in their interactions. Interestingly, even in online friendships
people seem to gain more satisfaction when befriending people of a
similar age and place of residence.
—Kunz, THINK Marriages & Families, p. 82
a. offline vs. online friendships
b. technology and self-image
c. personal information sharing online
d. satisfaction in online friendships

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A century ago politicians used to say, “Vote early and often.” Cases
such as West Virginia’s 159,000 votes being cast by 147,000 eligible
voters in 1888 were not that unusual. Largely to prevent corruption associated
with stuffing ballot boxes, states adopted voter registration laws
around the turn of the century, which require individuals to first place
their name on an electoral roll in order to be allowed to vote. Although
these laws have made it more difficult to vote more than once, they
have also discouraged some people from voting at all. Voter registration
requirements in the United States are, in part, to blame for why Americans
are significantly less likely to go to the polls than citizens of other
democratic nations.
—Edwards et al., Government in America, p. 313

a. voter turnout
b. voter registration
c. voter eligibility
d. voter fraud
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5
Compared with the technical resources of a theater of today, those
of a London public theater in the time of Queen Elizabeth I seem hopelessly
limited. Plays had to be performed by daylight, and scenery had to
be kept simple: a table, a chair, a throne, perhaps an artificial tree or two
to suggest a forest. But these limitations were, in a sense, advantages.
What the theater of today can spell out for us realistically, with massive
scenery and electric lighting, Elizabethan playgoers had to imagine
and the playwright had to make vivid for them by means of language.
Not having a lighting technician to work a panel, Shakespeare had to
indicate the dawn by having Horatio, in Hamlet, say in a speech rich in
metaphor and descriptive detail:
But look, the morn in russet mantle clad
Walks o’er the dew of yon high eastward hill.
—Kennedy and Gioia, Literature, p. 1243
a. impact of technological limitations on Elizabethan theater
b. benefits of modern technology in theater performances
c. effects of Shakespeare’s writing style
d. the use of language to make ideas vivid

9. Narrow or broaden each of the following topics it so that it can be developed in a single
paragraph.

1. Behavior of sports fans

2. Number of used cell phones discarded each year
3. Minority group discrimination on campus
4. Acreage destroyed by wildfires each year
5. procrastination

10. Underline the topic sentence in each of the following paragraphs.

1
The United States has a severe fire problem that if not addressed, will continue
to worsen drastically. Fire statistics show that our nation, one of the richest and
most technologically sophisticated countries in the world, lags behind its peer
nations in fire security. Nationally, there are millions of fires, thousands of deaths,
tens of thousands of injuries, and billions of dollars lost each year—figures which
far exceed comparable statistics for other industrialized countries. In 2001, for
example, the direct value of property destroyed in fires was $11 billion ($44 billion
if the World Trade Center loss is included). More recently in 2004, direct property
losses from fires were estimated at over $9.8 billion.
—Loyd and Richardson, Fundamentals of Fire and Emergency Services, p. 12
2
The star system has been the backbone of the American film industry since
the mid 1910s. Stars are the creation of the public, its reigning favorites. Their influence
in the fields of fashion, values, and public behavior has been enormous.
“The social history of a nation can be written in terms of its film stars,” Raymond
Durgnat has observed. Stars confer instant consequence to any film they appear
in. Their fees have staggered the public. In the 1920s, Mary Pickford and Charles
Chaplin were the two highest paid employees in the world. Contemporary stars
such as Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise command salaries of many millions per
film, so popular are these box-office giants. Some stars had careers that spanned
five decades: Bette Davis and John Wayne, to name just two.
— Giannetti, Understanding Movies, p. 251

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3
For decades, we have looked at our steadily increasing life expectancy rates
and proudly proclaimed that Americans’ health has never been better. Recently,
however, health organizations and international groups have attempted to
quantify the number of years a person lives with a disability or illness, compared
with the number of healthy years. The World Health Organization summarizes
this concept as healthy life expectancy. Simply stated, healthy life expectancy
refers to the number of years a newborn can expect to live in full health, based
on current rates of illness and mortality and also on the quality of their lives. For
example, if we could delay the onset of diabetes so that a person didn’t develop
the disease until he or she was 60 years old, rather than developing it at 30, there
would be a dramatic increase in this individual’s healthy life expectancy.
—Donatelle, Health: The Basics, p. 6
4
Are you “twittered out”? Is all that texting causing your thumbs to seize up in
protest? If so, you’re not alone. Like millions of others, you may find that all of the
pressure for contact is more than enough stress for you! Known as technostress,
the bombardment is defined as stress created by a dependence on technology
and the constant state of being plugged in or wirelessly connected, which
can include a perceived obligation to respond, chat, or tweet.
—Donatelle, Health: The Basics, p.66

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In the past, exposure to liability made many doctors, nurses, and other
medical professionals reluctant to stop and render aid to victims in emergency
situations, such as highway accidents. Almost all states have enacted a Good
Samaritan law that relieves medical professionals from liability for injury caused
by their ordinary negligence in such circumstances. Good Samaritan laws protect
medical professionals only from liability for their ordinary negligence, not
for injuries caused by their gross negligence or reckless or intentional conduct.
Most Good Samaritan laws protect licensed doctors and nurses and laypersons
who have been certified in CPR. Good Samaritan statutes generally do not protect
laypersons who are not trained in CPR—that is, they are liable for injuries
caused by their ordinary negligence in rendering aid.
— Goldman and Cheeseman, Paralegal Professional,

11. For each of the following topic sentences, write a topic sentence that expresses a
different viewpoint about the topic.

1. It is better to live in a city than in the country because the city offers many more activities and
opportunities to its residents.

2. Because tobacco products harm people’s health, all tobacco products should be banned.

3. Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace create communities of close-knit friends.

4. Dancing with the Stars entertains us by allowing celebrities to exhibit their unknown dance talents.

1.It is better to live in the country than in a city because the country offers more fresh air, more open space,
and a lower crime rate.
2.Because many products harm people’s health, it would not be fair to single out tobacco.
3.Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace can be a substitute for real human
interaction.
4.Dancing with the Stars is a rigged contest that exhibits celebrities whose lack of dance talent is covered up
by their dance professional partners.
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 12. Evaluate each of the following topic sentences and mark them as follows:
E = effective
A = announcement
S = too specific
G = too general
N = not complete thought

1. This paper will discuss the life and politics of Simón Bolívar.

2. Japanese culture is fascinating to study because its family traditions

are so different from American traditions.

3. The admission test for the police academy includes vocabulary

questions.

4. The discovery of penicillin was a great step in the advancement of

modern medicine.

5. I will talk about the reasons for the popularity of reality television
shows.

6. A habit leading to weight gain.

7. Each year Americans are the victims of more than 1 million

auto thefts.

8. The White House has many famous rooms and an exciting history.

9. There are three factors to consider when buying a flat-screen TV.

10. Iraq has a long and interesting history.

13. For each of the following sets of topic sentences, specify the topic that is being
discussed. Note that each topic sentence presents a different facet of (or opinion about)
the topic.

1
■ “The continued flow of immigrants into the United States has created a rich, diverse society that
has been beneficial to the country.”
■ “The presence of guest workers from South America in states like Arizona and California has a
positive effect on the U.S. economy.”
■ “Because the country is suffering from high unemployment, we must reduce the number of people
who come here looking for jobs.”

2
■ “Most scientists agree that temperatures now are warmer than they were 20 years ago.”
■ “It is hard to draw any definite conclusions from the hundreds of studies that have considered
whether climate change is occurring or not.”
■ “People who claim that the Earth is now hotter miss the point that the Earth has been getting
warmer over the last several thousand years, not just the last 50 years.”

1.Topic: immigration
2. Topic: climate change, or global warming