CHAPTER 2

HOW TO WRITE BODY

PARAGRAPHS

1
2
3
4
COMPONENTS OF A BODY PARAGRAPH:

As you have already learned in Chapter 1, an essay has two body paragraphs. In B1 level, a body
paragraph must be at least 100 words, and it must have a minimum of two supporting ideas. In
the Process Writing Exam, you will be responsible for writing only two body paragraphs.

While writing your body paragraphs:

1. Make sure you include a topic sentence, which states the main idea of the paragraph and
supports the thesis statement of the essay.

2. Explain and support the topic sentence with details including examples, facts and statistics.

3. Arrange the main ideas in a clear order. Be sure that each paragraph is clear, unified,
well developed, organized and coherent.

4. Do not write paragraphs that are too long or too short. Each of your body paragraphs
should be at least 100 words long. If the paragraph is too short, try to develop it with
examples and details. Make sure that you do not repeat your ideas.

5. Try to avoid writing about your personal opinion, instead focus on facts.

6. In your body paragraphs, you should have only one idea, which supports the
thesis statement.

5
 How to Write Topic Sentences for Body Paragraphs By looking at The Thesis Statement
Thesis Statement with two main ideas
Support A & Support B

Body 1 Body 2

Topic Sentence Topic Sentence

Essay Prompt: ‘What are the two main disadvantages of living in Istanbul?’
Thesis Statement: The two drawbacks of living in Istanbul are air pollution and heavy traffic.
The two drawbacks of living in Istanbul are air pollution and heavy traffic.

Support A Support B

Body 1 Body 2
Topic Sentence
Topic Sentence
Another drawback of living in Istanbul is
One of the main drawbacks of living in Istanbul is air heavy traffic.
pollution.

1. One of the main drawbacks of living in Istanbul is air pollution.

Transition signal Essay Topic Paragraph Topic

2. Another drawback of living in Istanbul is heavy traffic.

Transition signal Essay Topic Paragraph Topic

6
7
*For variety in topic sentences of two body paragraphs, you can change the order of essay topic,
paragraph topic and the transition signal:

TRANSITION ESSAY TOPIC PARAGRAPH TOPIC

The main drawback of living in Istanbul is heavy traffic.

PARAGRAPH TOPIC TRANSITION ESSAY TOPIC

Heavy traffic is the main drawback of living in Istanbul.

EXERCISE 2: Read the topic sentences below. Then, try to change the place of the essay
topic, paragraph topic and the transition signal.

1. The main benefit of living in Istanbul is the variety of cultural activities.

__________________________________________________________________________________
2. A further gain of living in a metropolitan city is experiencing different cultures.
__________________________________________________________________________________
3. The biggest effect of floods is that they lead to epidemics.
__________________________________________________________________________________
4. Another important cause of loneliness is lack of self-confidence.
__________________________________________________________________________________

5. Another effect of being poor is lack of educational opportunities.

__________________________________________________________________________________

6. The second way to build successful relationships with people is to listen to them.
__________________________________________________________________________________

8
EXERCISE 3: Read the topic sentences below and find two supporting details for them.

4. Topic Sentence: The main benefit of living in Istanbul is the variety of cultural activities.

Essay Topic Paragraph Topic

Supporting Detail 1: risk of having a lung cancer
explanation/ elaboration/example

Supporting Detail 2: risk of having a heart attack

explanation/ elaboration/example

a. Another important cause of loneliness is lack of self-confidence.

Supporting Detail 1
EXPLANATION/ ELABORATION/EXAMPLE
Supporting Detail 2
EXPLANATION/ ELABORATION/EXAMPLE

b. Another effect of being poor is lack of educational opportunities.

Supporting Detail 1
EXPLANATION/ ELABORATION/EXAMPLE
Supporting Detail 2
EXPLANATION/ ELABORATION/EXAMPLE

c. A further gain of living in a small city is saving time.

Supporting Detail 1
EXPLANATION/ ELABORATION/EXAMPLE
Supporting Detail 2
EXPLANATION/ ELABORATION/EXAMPLE

9
 EXPRESSIONS FOR BODY PARAGRAPHS
BODY PARAGRAPH 1

TOPIC SENTENCE 1 : The first way of

The first benefit of
The first drawback of (essay topic) is (paragraph topic 1).
The first advantage of
The first disadvantage of
The first reason for
First of all,
To start with,
To begin with, Supporting detail 1
Firstly,
In the first place
EXPLANATION OF SUPPORTING DETAIL 1.
For example,
For instance, Examples
To illustrate,
Moreover,
Furthermore,
What's more, Supporting detail 2
In addition,

EXPLANATION OF SUPPORTING DETAIL 2.

For example,
For instance, Details and Examples
To illustrate,

CONCLUDING: In short, way of

SENTENCE 1 In brief, notable benefit of
To summarize, (paragraph topic 1) is the most important drawback of (essay topic).
To sum up, noteworthy advantage of
In summary, significant disadvantage of
All in all, reason for

10
BODY PARAGRAPH 2
TOPIC SENTENCE 2 : The second way of
Another benefit of
The second drawback of (essay topic) is (paragraph topic 1).
Another advantage of
The second disadvantage of
A further reason for
First of all,
To start with,
To begin with, Supporting detail 1.
Firstly,
In the first place
EXPLANATION OF SUPPORTING DETAIL 1.
For example,
For instance, Examples
To illustrate,
Moreover,
Furthermore,
What's more, Supporting detail 2.
In addition,

EXPLANATION OF SUPPORTING DETAIL 2.

For example,
For instance, Details and Examples
To illustrate,
CONCLUDING: In short, way of
SENTENCE 2 In brief, notable benefit of
To summarize, (paragraph topic 1) is another important drawback of (essay topic).
To sum up, noteworthy advantage of
In summary, significant disadvantage of
All in all, reason for

11
EXERCISE 4: Analyze the sample essay given below and complete the second body paragraph with
your own ideas.
Essay Topic: What are the drawbacks of smoking?

Drawbacks of Smoking

Many people form a variety of habits to deal with certain challenges in life. Some of these
habits can be beneficial for them like doing sports as it helps people to become physically strong.
However, there are also others which can cause some problems in people’s lives such as smoking. The
two drawbacks of smoking is suffering from health issues and having financial problems.

Health issues are the first disadvantage of smoking. To begin with, the effects of smoking
on the lung can cause serious health issues. As smokers inhale dangerous chemicals while smoking,
it changes the delivery of oxygen to the human body. As a result of this, smoking diminishes lung
function, which results in shortness of breath. Moreover, smoking also influences the heart
negatively. Since the chemicals make the vessels harder and narrower than non-smokers, it
accelerates the risk of having a heart attack for smokers. Therefore, they might die due to having a
sudden heart attack. To sum up, smoking has significant negative effects on the lung and the heart.

Another disadvantage of smoking is having financial problems. _______________________

__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
In conclusion, health and financial problems are the two disadvantages of smoking. If
people smoke, the quality of their life will dramatically decrease because they will lose both their
health and money. In my opinion, people must stay away from bad habits like smoking in order
to have a healthy and prosperous life.

12
In Class Practice 1
Essay Prompt: ‘It is a good idea to work for the same company for your entire life?’ Do you agree or
disagree with this statement?
Fill in the brainstorming chart below; then, write two body 2 paragraphs to complete the essay
given on the following page.
TITLE: Working For the Same Company

Thesis Statement:

INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH

Support 1:

Support 2:

BODY PARAGRAPH 1

Concluding Sentence:

Support 1:

BODY PARAGRAPH 2

Support 2:

Concluding Sentence:

Paraphrase of Thesis Statement:

CONCLUDING PARAGRAPH

13
 A Job for Life
Do you know anybody around you who started working at a place and plans to stay and work
there for over thirty years? This is now hard to come by, but this was how people planned their
career until a couple decades ago. It was desirable to work at the same workplace because it would
ensure promotion, and an annual increase in income. It is easy to see the benefits of being employed
by the same firm; however this doesn’t mean there aren’t any drawbacks. The two main
disadvantages of working for the same company all your life are _____________________ and
_____________________.

The most important disadvantage of working for the same company all your life is
_____________________._____________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
Another important drawback of a life-long employment at the same company is that
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________

To conclude, although you can have some benefits when you work at the same place for
a long time, you have to think of the disadvantages such as ______________________ and
_______________. Nowadays, working for the same company for more than ten years is not even
considered good in many areas of work. To my way of thinking, people should make a new start in
their careers if they feel they are in a monotonous working environment.

14
 In Class Practice 2

Essay Prompt: What are the advantages of living in a small city?

TITLE: _______________________________________

Thesis Statement:

INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH

Support 1:

Support 2:

BODY PARAGRAPH 1

Concluding Sentence:

Support 1:

BODY PARAGRAPH 2

Support 2:

Concluding Sentence:

Paraphrase of Thesis Statement:

CONCLUDING PARAGRAPH

15
Write two body paragraphs for the essay topic ‘How can we prepare for exams?’ Use the chart above
to brainstorm.
While writing your body paragraphs, please keep these points below in mind:

 Use the linkers you have practiced in class so far.

 Try to use the grammar structures you have learned.

 Include some of the new words you have learned so far.

16
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

17
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

18