Parts of a Paragraph - English Academic Writing Introduction

Source:

[Maker Alex]. [2009, May 19). Parts of a paragraph- English Academic Writing

Introduction. [Video file]. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCuExRE6N-4

PARTS OF PARAGRAPHS

 •TOPIC SENTENCE: It states what you are writing about, what is your subject. In order to write an effective topic sentence, you have to choose an interesting topic and give your opinion on it.

•BODY: This is the heart of your. This is where you get all the supporting details and arguments for your topic sentence. You can order the details in two ways: by order of importance and by chronology.

•CLOSING SENTENCE: It has two functions. The first one is to remind the audience what you are

writing about. The second one is to keep the audience thinking once they finish reading.

Examples of paragrapahs with their topic sentences:

 1-There are two broad theories concerning what triggers a human's inevitable decline to death. The first is the wear-and-tear hypothesis that suggests the body eventually succumbs to the environmental insults of life. The second is the notion that we have an internal clock which is genetically programmed to run down. Supporters of the wear-and-tear theory maintain that the very practice of breathing causes us to age because inhaled oxygen produces toxic by-products. Advocates of the internal clock theory believe that individual cells are told to stop dividing and thus eventually to die by, for example, hormones produced by the brain or by their own genes. (from Debra Blank, "The Eternal Quest" [edited]).

2-We commonly look on the discipline of war as vastly more rigid than any discipline necessary in time of peace, but this is an error. The strictest military discipline imaginable is still looser than that prevailing in the average assembly-line. The soldier, at worst, is still able to exercise the highest conceivable functions of freedom -- that is, he or she is permitted to steal and to kill. No discipline prevailing in peace gives him or her anything remotely resembling this. The soldier is, in war, in the position of a free adult; in peace he or she is almost always in the position of a child. In war all things are excused by success, even violations of discipline. In peace, speaking generally, success is inconceivable except as a function of discipline. (From H.L. Mencken, "Reflections on War" [edited]).

3- Although the interpretation of traffic signals may seem highly standardized, close observation reveals regionals variations across this country, distinguishing the East Coast from Central Canada and the West  as surely as dominant  dialects or political inclinations.  In Montreal, a flashing red traffic light instructs drivers to careen even more wildly through intersections heavily populated with pedestrians and oncoming vehicles. In startling contrast, an amber light in Calgary warns drivers to scream to a halt on the off chance that there might be a pedestrian within 500 meters who might consider crossing at some unspecified time within the current day. In my home town in New Brunswick, finally, traffic lights (along with painted lines and posted speed limits) do not apply to tractors, all terrain vehicles, or pickup trucks, which together account for most vehicles on the road. In fact, were any observant Canadian dropped from an alien space vessel at an unspecified intersection anywhere in this vast land, he or she could almost certainly orient him-or-herself according to the surrounding traffic patterns.