Summary paragraphs for three main areas of forensic biology

In your bubble map, you detailed three different areas within forensic biology. Now, you are going to write a one paragraph summary for each area. Use your bubble map notes to write your paragraphs, and be sure to write the paragraphs in your own words. There are some basic requirements for the paragraphs. Each paragraph must have a main idea, at least three detail sentences, and a conclusion sentence. Each detail must support the main idea. The conclusion must restate the main idea in a different way. Be sure to proofread your paragraphs to ensure they meet these basic requirements. Before deciding that you have completed this assignment, ask yourself the following questions? Did your paragraphs meet the basic requirements? Did your paragraphs adequately summarize the information? Were your paragraphs well written? Did you do the best you could do on this assignment? If you can answer yes to each question, then you may be ready to move on to the next assignment. If you have trouble writing good paragraphs, then read the back of this handout. I have provided some information on how to write paragraphs.

Basic Paragraph Structure (adapted from http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/fwalters/para.html) The Topic Sentence A topic sentence usually comes at the beginning of a paragraph. Not only is a topic sentence usually the first sentence of a paragraph, but, more importantly, it is the most general sentence in a paragraph. What does "most general" mean? It means that there are not many details in the sentence, but that the sentence introduces an overall idea that you want to discuss later in the paragraph. Supporting Sentences Imagine a topic sentence that states, My hometown, Wheaton, is famous for several amazing natural features. When a reader reads that topic sentence, a question should usually appear in the reader's mind. In this case, the question should be like, "What are the natural features that make Wheaton famous?" The reader should then expect that the rest of the paragraph will give an answer to this question. The middle sentences in a paragraph are called supporting sentences. They are called "supporting" because they "support," or explain, the idea expressed in the topic sentence. These sentences provide the details that answer the question asked after reading the topic sentence. At minimum, you should have at least three to five supporting sentences in your paragraph. The Concluding Sentence In formal paragraphs you will sometimes see a sentence at the end of the paragraph which summarizes the information that has been presented. This is the concluding sentence. You can think of a concluding sentence as a sort of topic sentence in reverse. You can understand concluding sentences with this example. Consider a hamburger that you can buy at a fast-food restaurant. A hamburger has a top bun, then the meat, cheese, lettuce, and other elements in the middle of the hamburger, and finally a bottom bun. Note how the top bun and the bottom bun are very similar. The top bun, in a way, is like a topic sentence, and the bottom bun is like the concluding sentence. Both buns "hold" the meat, onions, and so on. Similarly, the topic sentence and concluding sentence "hold" the supporting sentences in the paragraph.