1. Weekly Overview
Week 2 of the course covers paragraphs, and how to organize a paragraph clearly. You will start to think about your topic for the essay due at the end of the course.
2. Excerpts from the Online Materials
The following is a sample of key materials from this week’s lesson:
Writing Paragraphs
A good paragraph has an organization that makes sense to the reader. Each sentence leads logically to the next, and should be connected through transition words or other connections. In addition to a topic sentence and one main idea, an effective para has coherence and development.
Coherence
Coherence makes a paragraph understandable to a reader. You can create coher- ence in your paragraphs by crafting logical and verbal connections. You can develop logical connections by making sure that each sentence in a paragraph relates in some way to the topic sentence. You can also create these connections through the use of words (“verbal connections”). For example, you can:
- Repeat key words
- Use synonyms for key words
- Use pronouns to link sentences together
- Link sentences with transition words
Development
Development refers to the support you provide for your topic sentence. A well- developed paragraph should have an adequate number of sentences to support the main idea. What’s an “adequate number”? There is no one answer. That depends on the idea and how much development it needs. Here are some ways you can make sure your paragraphs are developed. You can:
- Use examples
- Give data (such as statistics, data, information, and examples)
- Quote others, either directly or through paraphrasing
- Tell a story
- Define your key words
- Compare or contrast ideas
- Examine causes and effects
- Use logical reasoning
Different types of paragraphs
The word paragraph comes from the Greek word paragraphs (“to write beside” or “written beside”). The paragraph is a unit of writing expressing one specific idea, and is made up of one or more sentences.
In this course, we are going to focus on academic writing. In this type ofwriting, paragraphs are generally long, and use the structure pointed out in the video. This 3 part structure includes a topic sentence, body sentences, and a concluding sentence that transitions to the next paragraph (or ends the essay).
Look at these two paragraphs. Which one is an example of academic writing?
- Paragraphs are the building blocks of papers. Many students define paragraphs in terms of length: a paragraph is a group of at least five sentences, a paragraph is half a page long, etc. In reality, though, the unity and coherence of ideas among sentences is what constitutes a paragraph. A paragraph is defined as “a group of sentences or a single sentence that forms a unit” (Lunsford and Connors 116). Length and appearance do not determine whether a section in a paper is a paragraph. For instance, in some styles of writing, particularly journalistic styles, a paragraph can be just one sentence long. Ultimately, a paragraph is a sentence or group of sentences that support one main idea. In this handout, we will refer to this as the “controlling idea,” because it controls what happens in the rest of the paragraph.
(Source: http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/paragraphs)
2. A team of archaeologists said Monday it has unearthed an unusual coffin within a coffin in the central England parking lot where it found the skeleton of King Richard III, and that they hope to identify the remains within.
(Source: http://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/Scientists- find-mystery-coffin-at-Richard-III-site-4694085.php )
You probably guessed that the first paragraph is the academic one.
How to Choose an Essay Topic
What do you want to write about? This is often a hard question to answer. In the third week of the course, you will begin your first essay for the course. To start that process, practice writing paragraphs for three ideas you might write a longer paper about. For your first essay, you will write about one of these topics:
- a current question or problem in your community that interests you
- an invention that you would like to create (or an existing invention that you think should never have been created)
- a person who has had a positive influence on you
Sources for Writing Effective Paragraphs
Websites:
- “How to Write a Paragraph” http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Paragraph
- “The Secrets to Good Paragraph Writing” http://www.time4writing.com/ writ-ing-sources/para-graph-writ-secrets/crets/
Books:
- How to Write a Paragraph: The Art of Substantive Writing, 3rd edition, by Linda Elder and Richard Paul, 2014, Foundation for Critical Thinking Press.
- Word Up! How to Write Powerful Sentences and Paragraphs (And Every- thing You Build from Them), by Marcia Riefer Johnston and Scott Abel, 2013, Northwest Brainstorms Publishing.
3. Freewriting
Recall that the purpose of free writing is to improve your speed and fluency by writing without editing yourself as you write. Take out a pen and paper, or sit at your computer and write on the following idea (or any idea you want) for 5-10 minutes without stopping. Do not edit yourself for grammar, spelling, or any other reason. Let the thoughts just spill onto your page or screen, without thinking about whether they are right or wrong, good or bad.
Free writing topic 2: Who are some of your favorite writers? Why do you enjoy their writing?
4. Controlled Writing
Remember that in controlled writing, you need to pay close attention to form and structure, editing yourself for grammar, organization, and clear ideas.
Controlled writing topic 2: When writing an essay, should students have a choice of topics, or should the teacher assign the topic?
5. Editing
The following paragraphs have several errors in it. Identify the errors, and rewrite the paragraphs correctly. Go to the back of this book for one possible correct way to write the paragraphs.
Paulo Menotti Del Picchia was a Brazilian poet, journelist, and painter. Born at 1892, he is associated with the Generation of 1922, the first generation of Brazilians modernist. Del Picchia was educate in the law, and was a practicing attorny when he begun writting poetry. He moved to São Paulo, the city of his birth, and became aquainted with Mário de Andrade and the other young modernists in the city. He was member of the Group of Five, along with Andrade, poet Oswald de Andrade, and painters Tarsila do Amaral and Anita Malfatti, and was one of the key participant of the Week of Modern Art in São Paulo, in February 1922, a large event in the history of modernism of arts in the Brazil.
Because of del Picchia outlived his literary generation, he received much more honors for his role in the creation of Modernism than any of his colleagues. By the time of his death, he has received most of highest governmental, academics, and private honors in Brazil. He’s house in Itapira is now museum.
6. Vocabulary Check
Here are some words from this week that were used in this week’s course mate- rials. Check (√), highlight, or note the ones you already know. Look up the ones you don’t know. For the ones you don’t know, write them out on cards, or add them to a notebook, along with the definition, written in your own words. Indicate the part of speech. Then write an example sentence in your own words.
___ adequate
___ an attorney
___ coherence
___ a colleague
___ an invention
___ a journalist
___ literary
___ modernism
___ to paraphrase
___ a participant
___ transitional
Remember to share your work and comment on others’ work on the course web- site at http://edX.org.