FINAL WRITING TASK: A Biography Paragraph

In this unit, you read personal accounts of how people overcame major obstacles.
You are going to write a biographical paragraph about how you or someone you
know overcame an obstacle.
For an alternative writing topic, see page 59.
PREPARE TO WRITE: Listing
Listing is a prewriting activity in which you list information about a topic or category
before you begin to write a paragraph or essay. Your list doesn’t have to be written in
complete sentences. Write quickly. You can always organize your ideas later.
Look back at Connect the Readings on page 47 to complete the left column of the
chart. In the right column, write three or more obstacles that you or someone
you know has faced.NE I

KNOW

Marla: blindness

Frank: abandonment
Me, in elementary:
Frank: poverty
Trouble reading fluently and
Frank: lack of education
pronouncing certain syllables.
Marla: problems with classes/ homework
(teacher)
WRITE
Writing a Biographical Paragraph
A paragraph is a group of sentences that are related and that support a controlling
idea. A biographical paragraph describes a person’s life and sometimes focuses on
one particular aspect. All paragraphs have three parts: the topic sentence, the
supporting sentences, and the concluding sentence.

Topic Sentence
The topic sentence introduces the main idea and the controlling idea, which is your
idea or opinion about the main idea. The topic sentence controls what you write in the
rest of the paragraph. All the sentences in the paragraph must relate to, describe, or
illustrate the controlling idea in the topic sentence.

Supporting Sentences
The second part of the paragraph includes supporting sentences that give details or
examples that develop your ideas about the topic. This is usually the longest part of
the paragraph since it discusses and explains the controlling idea.

Concluding Sentence
The concluding sentence is the last part of the paragraph. It can do one or more of the
following: summarize the paragraph, offer a solution to the problem, restate the topic
sentence, or offer an opinion.

1 Read the paragraph. Then answer the questions.

Michael Jordan said, “Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t
turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.”
This attitude can be seen all around us. Many people have faced great obstacles in
their lives but have found ways to overcome and actually benefit from these obstacles.
For example, Greg Barton, the 1984, 1988, and 1992 U.S. Olympic medalist in
kayaking, was born with a serious disability. He had clubfoot: his toes pointed inward,
and as a result, he could not walk easily. Even after a series of operations, he still had
limited mobility. Even so, Greg was never defeated. First, he taught himself to walk,
and even to run. Then he competed on his high school running team. He knew, though,
he would never become an Olympic runner, so he looked for other sports that he could
play. Happily, he discovered kayaking, a perfect sport for him because it required
minimal leg and foot muscles. Using his upper body strength, he was able to master
the sport. Finally, after many years of training and perseverance, Greg made the 1984
Olympic team. He says of his accomplishments, “Each step of the road has been made
easier by looking just as far as necessary—yet not beyond that.” In short, even though
that road was paved with obstacles, he was able to overcome them and achieve the
impossible.

1. What is the topic of the paragraph? How do you know?

Overcoming obstacles; it’s the 1st and 3rd sentences.

2. What is the controlling idea?

Many people have faced great obstacles in their lives but have found ways to overcome
and actually benefit from these obstacles.

3. Underline the sentences that support the topic and controlling ideas.
How do they relate to the controlling idea?
They tell me/explain me how Greg Barton overcame his obstacles and he benefited.
 4. What is the concluding sentence? What does it do?
In short, even though that road was paved with obstacles, he was able to overcome them
and achieve the impossible. It summarizes the paragraph.

2 Use the information from Prepare to Write on page 53 and complete

the chart to plan your paragraph.
• Make sure you have a topic sentence, supporting sentences, and a concluding
sentence.
• Check your use of gerunds and infinitives
Topic sentence.
1. When we are younger, we can experience obstacles particular to our age,
nevertheless, there might be some methods that apply to our specific situation;
said methods, a supporting environment and time itself could be our way to
overcome them.

Supporting sentences:

2. Back in elementary school, I had trouble reading and pronouncing certain syllables,
however, I was able to overcome it by following different professional procedures
and my parents’ company and support.
3. My brother faced the same issues, so my mom took us to linguistic and pedagogic
therapy.
4. The therapist was a gentle and patient woman. The therapy consisted in oral
exercises, we had a notebook full of them along with illustrations. We did them
every day after doing our schoolwork with the help of our mom.
5. From what I remember, we went to her office two days a week, each session she
would add more exercises according to our progress; sometimes she would also
reward us.
 6. In less than six months we were able to pronounce the syllables and words we had
difficulty with. Something that we could have overcome through time but this aid
accelerated it and made it less tedious for us as children.

Concluding sentence

7. Sometimes we face obstacles specific to our environment and self at the time, that
can be solved with a little help, support and time itself.

REVISE: Choosing Appropriate Supporting Sentences

1 Choose two sentences that help the reader understand the sentence, “Back
home, the family’s troubles continued.” Why do these sentences help? Look at the
other two sentences. Why are they not helpful?
• Malachy’s parents and siblings had problems of their own, and wasted no time turning
them away.
• They were a big family and were very poor; they hoped their parents and siblings could
help them.
• Many of their friends were poor, too. Their neighbor had fourteen children, and the
father did not have a job.
• Eventually, they ended up in a city called Limerick, in a one-room apartment infested
with fleas.