Dear
Master’s Programs student,
As a
continuation from the previous writing tip on topic
sentences,
this week’s entry will focus on two more ways to help cue your paragraphs.
Cue the entire paragraph
A topic
sentence must effectively summarize the entire paragraph that it leads. If any part of the paragraph isn’t covered by
your topic sentence, then the topic sentence has been too narrowly constructed.
Ask
yourself whether all parts of the paragraph are mentioned in the topic
sentence. If not, you can rewrite the
topic sentence as a broader statement that encapsulates all the ideas of the
paragraph it leads. Alternatively, if
you have enough content, take the ideas that don’t fit under your existing
topic sentence, and put them in their own separate paragraph.
Cue only what’s in the paragraph
The
opposite problem of a topic sentence that is too narrow is a topic sentence
that promises more than it can deliver.
A paragraph should at least touch on—if not fully develop—all aspects of
a topic sentence.
If your
topic sentence includes ideas that aren’t covered in the paragraph it leads,
make an inventory of items not covered within the paragraph. Then reframe your topic sentence more
narrowly so that it excludes these “missing” parts. Or, if you can amplify the existing paragraph
to include the missing material (without creating a large, unwieldy paragraph),
extend the body of the paragraph to include everything mentioned in the topic
sentence.
Planning & Analyzing Your Paragraph
Below
is a sample of our “rough plan” graphic organizer. For each paragraph you write, fill out the
four boxes. When you consider the
purpose of a paragraph, consider what it will do (e.g. define key terms, give historical background, introduce a
counter-argument, summarize key points already mentioned). Then, consider the
type of topic sentence you’ll need to cue the ideas.
This
graphic organizer can also be used as a reverse outline: once you’ve already
written your paper, go back and fill in the rough plan boxes for each
paragraph. Does the topic sentence
accurately cue the reader about its paragraph?
If not, look at your “purpose” and “evidence” sections to determine what
needs to be added to or removed from the topic sentence to make it more
accurate.
Purpose of
Paragraph (in this ¶ I will prove):
|
Topic
Sentence:
|
Relationship
to Thesis:
|
Points of
Support (evidence):
|
(To print a full rough plan for your paper, click here.)
The key
question to consider is this: would a reader have a clear idea about my
paragraph’s main idea from its topic sentence?
Happy
writing!
