2019-05-07 Writing: paragraph structure, fragments

Greg Malivuk
gmalivuk@staffordhouse.com
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - Notes from all classes
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English academic writing structure:
- introduction: here’s what you’re going to read about
- body: here’s some details about that
- conclusion: this is what you just read about
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In a paragraph, the “introduction” is the topic sentence and the conclusion is also just one sentence.
The body is a set of sentences between these.

In an essay, the introduction is a paragraph (which includes a hook, some background, and a thesis). The conclusion is also a paragraph. The body is one or more paragraphs between these.

Articles and books often have a similar structure, with the introduction and conclusion as entire sections or chapters.
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The topic sentence of a single pagraph is more or less the “thesis statement” of that paragraph.
From this sentence, readers should be able to identify the topic and the controlling idea of the text.
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(A noun, a noun phrase, or a noun clause might make a good title for your text, but isn’t a sentence.)
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Learning English is necessary for my career.
	topic: learning English
	controlling idea: is necessary for my career
Other possible ideas about the same topic:
	- is easy if you follow these steps
	- is not important for most people
	- is bad for other countries and cultures
	- is important for my life
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The controlling idea is what you’re going to say about the topic in the rest of the text. Basic biographical information might be a grammatical sentence, but won’t be very interesting to read about.
“Eduardo Silva has an interesting life.”
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Look at the example paragraphs and answer the questions.
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A sentence fragment is a set of words that do not make a complete sentence.
- Sometimes there’s no verb: How to learn English. Learning English. My best friend.
- Sometimes there’s no subject: Is beautiful outside. Has many things to do.
- Sometimes the idea is incomplete: Because it is raining. Before I got home yesterday. That I saw today.
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p. 15 (on screen) - Read the phrases and decide which ones are sentences and which ones are not. Then fix the ones that are not.
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Homework: Do the same thing with the handout. (Identify sentences and fragments, and then fix the fragments.)