Supporting Sentences

English 2

Elements of Paragraph

The beginning
1. Introductory sentence 2. Topic sentence

A good INTRODUCTORY SENTENCE may follow one of these forms: 1. Problem-solving 2. Amazing facts technique 3. Story/anecdote technique

For example: 1. Problem-solving Why do people get addicted to their gadgets?

2. Amazing fact There are about 200 million of cellular phone subscribers in the whole world. 3. Story technique Two years ago, I chose to use single GSM provider for simplicity.

READ the paragraph below. Add a suitable introductory sentence. Check your answers with the class. ______________________________________________. There is so much that students can do with the Internet. Not only can they communicate with international students, they can gain from others knowledge and experiences. In addition, students can also participate in chat rooms to share ideas and solutions. Most importantly, students can explore the Internet to gain access to limitless information.

The middle: details

Supporting sentences provide the ingredients to support the topic of a paragraph. Supporting sentences can be Facts, Incidents, Reasons, and Examples (FIRE) A supporting sentence can have Major and Minor details (but not all supporting sentences have both).

 Major detail: the primary points that support the controlling idea Minor detail: the points that support the major detail

Confusion about the difference between the World Wide Web which is known as the Web and the Internet has arisen because the Web has become extremely popular and currently accounts for the majority of internet traffic. The difference between the Internet and the Web is sort of like the highways and a delivery service. The Internet is like the highways. Information traffic from the Web travels over the Internet. On the other hand, the Web is like the delivery service. Delivery service trucks use highways to move packages from one place to another.

 Topic: the internet and the web Controlling idea: difference Major details: - the internet is the highways - the web is the delivery service Minor details: - information traffic from the Web travels over the Internet - delivery service trucks use highways to move packages from one place to another

If you delete the minor details, the paragraph still makes sense
Confusion about the difference between the World Wide Web which is known as the Web and the Internet has arisen because the Web has become extremely popular and currently accounts for the majority of internet traffic. The difference between the Internet and the Web is sort of like the highways and a delivery service.

If you delete the major details, does the paragraph still make sense?
Confusion about the difference between the World Wide Web which is known as the Web and the Internet has arisen because the Web has become extremely popular and currently accounts for the majority of internet traffic. Information traffic from the Web travels over the Internet. Delivery service trucks use highways to move packages from one place to another.

Coherence and Unity

In a paragraph, every supporting sentence should "belong". Thus, a paragraph needs to have a coherence and unity.

Coherence
Coherence in a paragraph is the technique of making words, phrases, and sentences move smoothly and logically from one to the other. You can help create coherence in your paragraphs by creating logical bridges and verbal bridges.

 Logical bridges: The same idea of a topic is carried over from sentence to sentence. Verbal bridges -Key words can be repeated in several sentences. -Synonymous words can be repeated in several sentences. -Pronouns can refer to nouns in previous sentences. -Transition words can be used to link ideas from different sentences.

Transitional Signals: the underlined words

Another difference among the world's seas and oceans is that the salinity varies in different climate zones. For example, the Baltic Sea in northern Europe is only one quarter as saline as the Red Sea in the Middle East. There are two reasons for this. First of all, in warm climates, water evaporates rapidly; therefore, the concentration of salt is greater than that in cold climate zones, where water evaporates slowly. Secondly, in hot areas the surrounding land is dry and consequently does not contribute much fresh water to dilute the salty seawater. In contrast, the runoff created by melting snow in cold areas adds a considerable amount of fresh water to dilute the saline seawater.

Unity
Unity is the quality of sticking to one idea from start to finish, with every sentence contributing to the central purpose and main idea of that paragraph. To identify which idea does not belong to a paragraph, one must recognize its topic sentence. Use logical order to organize supporting sentences into a pattern of organization

Read the paragraph below. Recognize its topic sentence and underline it. Then, identify irrelevant sentences (sentences that do not belong) and highlight them. My interest in music began when I started piano lessons at the age of five. There was an old piano in our dining room and every child in our family took lessons. However, I was the only child who liked the piano. My older brothers and sister only studied for two or three years. My brother Bob decided that he liked sports better and became a good athlete. My sister Rosie was more interested in drama and was in many school plays. Kevin just spent all of his free time reading. I continued studying until I left for college. And the piano was not the only instrument I played. I took flute lessons and played the saxophone in a pep band in high school. The pep band played at all the basketball games, so I always able to cheer for my brother Bob. He was the star of the team! After I finished high school, I went to college. I decided to major in mathematics--my second love. My father convinced me that it is difficult to get jobs in music. Although today I work in an office, music is still a big part of my life.

Answer:
My interest in music began when I started piano lessons at the age of five. There was an old piano in our dining room and every child in our family took lessons. However, I was the only child who liked the piano. My older brothers and sister only studied for two or three years. My brother Bob decided that he liked sports better and became a good athlete. My sister Rosie was more interested in drama and was in many school plays. Kevin just spent all of his free time reading. I continued studying until I left for college. And the piano was not the only instrument I played. I took flute lessons and played the saxophone in a pep band in high school. The pep band played at all the basketball games, so I always able to cheer for my brother Bob. He was the star of the team! After I finished high school, I went to college. I decided to major in mathematics--my second love. My father convinced me that it is difficult to get jobs in music. Although today I work in an office, music is still a big part of my life.

Expository Paragraph
Focus on useful information, advice, evidence, and cites authority. Use formal and academic language. Can be found on textbook, newspaper, and magazine articles. Common pattern: - Listing: definition-examples, and comparisoncontrast - Ordering: sequence, and time - Reasoning: cause-effect, and problem-solution

 Red book: p. 168-179 Orange book: p. 114-118