Academic Writing Skills

Writing skills
Unlock 2, Unit 4, Reading and Writing, pp.96-98

English Language Institute

‫معهد اللغة اإلنجليزية‬
Lesson Objectives

1- To practice writing topic sentences for descriptive paragraph about a graph

2-To practice writing supporting sentences using numbers or data to support
the main idea
3- To learn the words and phrases used to introduce supporting examples
Topic sentence:
A topic sentence is the first sentence of a
paragraph

When writing about a graph use the

following phrase:

The graph shows the temperature in degrees

Celsius over 24 hours in the Sahara desert.

The graph shows + what is measured

(temperature) + time period (24 hours/one
year) + place
The graph shows + what is measured (temperature) + time period (24
hours/one year) + place

Graph A shows the precipitation in

millimetres over one year in
Svalbard, Norway
The graph shows + what is measured (temperature) + time period (24
hours/one year) + place

Graph B shows the temperature in

degrees Celsius over one year in
Svalbard, Norway
Supporting sentences: they give more information about the topic
sentence

Supporting
sentence

Main idea Data

Describes a Example: Both

Example: New is a number from
general feature or cities have an
York is as rainy as the graph to
trend from the average rainfall of
Houston. illustrate the trend
graph 1,270 millimetres
Giving Examples
Writing task: To compare the weather in the two cities using the information from the
graphs

Remember to include:
• Topic sentence: Use the phrase
‘The graphs show……

• Supporting sentences: Look at the

highest and the lowest
temperatures in each city.

• Concluding sentence: Which city

has a better weather/ Which place
has extreme weather conditions?