Chapter 8: From Paragraph to Essay

1

Miguel & TAs

(Amy & Evan)

英文寫作基礎W6

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.

Task 1: What do you know about an essay?

Step 1: What is an essay? (10 mins)

Step 1: Assign a reporter, a note-taker, a discussion leader, and a mediator to each group. Distribute the sentence strips to each group.

Step 2: Rearrange the sentences into a well-organized 5-paragraph essay.

Step 3: The note-taker from each group writes down the sequence of the sentences (only the alphabets), and if differences are spotted, the reporter provides their reasons.

2

Can you identify the topic of each paragraph?

Step 2: Find the topic sentence (5 mins)

Paragraph 1

The problems of getting to the theater, the theater itself, and the behavior of some patrons are all reasons why I often wait for a movie to show on TV.

Paragraph 2

First of all, just getting to the theater presents difficulties.

3

Paragraph 3

Once you have made it to the box office and have gotten your tickets, you are confronted with the problems of the theater itself.

Paragraph 4

Some of the patrons are even more of a problem than the theater itself.

Paragraph 5

I was tired of the problems involved in getting to the movies and dealing with the theater itself and some of the patrons.

4

Group Task 2: How & Why (15 mins)

Step 1: Diagram your outline. Use all the following pieces to diagram your structure on a piece of paper.

Step 2: Have the reporters show the diagrams to the class.5

Class Discussion (15 mins)

Step 3: Why did you diagram your structure the way you did?

Getting to the

Theater

WeatherLong drive

Long wait

Bad behaviorsTheater itself

Not a moviegoer

Old theater

New theater

Dirty floors

Kids’ Teens Adults

Why the funnel

shapes?

Compare & Contrast

No for 3 reasons

The relationship?

Tired of the problems

Will be watching box

office hits at home6

What’s special about the first and the last paragraphs? What do they have in common?

The problems in getting to the theater, the theater itself, and the behavior of some patrons are all reasons why I often wait for a movie to show up on TV. (from paragraph 1)

I was tired of the problems involved in getting to the movies and dealing with the theater itself and some of the patrons. (from paragraph 5)

Similar contents are discussed in both paragraphs.

7

What technique is used? (cont.)

Paraphrasing (or Restating the most important topic)

Summarizing (the key points)

The most important sentence is also called

8

Are there any words or phrases that help connect each body paragraph?

Body Paragraph 1

• First of all

Body Paragraph 2

• Once

Body Paragraph 3

• even more

9

Can you construct the outline for the essay?

Introduction

Opening

What kind of introductory statement did you notice?

Attention-getting

A brilliant question

A statistic

A contradicting fact

An interesting story (event, news, tale, etc)

Historic background (often used in literature reviews)

Others (quotations, tales, poems, idioms, etc)

10

Features of thesis statement (TSS)

• Feature 1: express opinion/ reveal the position (overview type)

➣ Native Americans have made many valuable contributions to modern U.S.

culture.

➣ Schoolchildren’s reading ability is declining because children are influenced by the people around them.

• Feature2: May indicate the pattern of organization of the essay (summary type)

➣When buying a used car, use these four strategies to get the best price.

➣ There are several factors resulting in the decline of schoolchildren’s reading ability.

11

• Feature 3:May list subtopics or subdivisions of the main topic or subtopics (subtopic type)

➣ The causes of the decline of schoolchildren’s reading ability can be associated with changes in 3 aspects: family parenting, school education and socialenvironment.

➣ The causes of the decline of schoolchildren’s reading ability can be associated with changes not only in social structure but also in educational policies.

• Feature 4: Is normally the last sentence in the introductory paragraph.

12

Conclusion

Concluding sentence:

Paraphrasing the main topic (TSS)

Summarizing the key points

Final remark (closure)

What kind of closing statement did you notice?

Making a prediction

Suggest results or consequences

Recommend a solution or call for action

Quote an authority on the topic

13

Make a prediction

• We have seen how the costs of attending college have been rising while, atthe same time, sources of financial aid for students have been disappearing.If this trend continues, fewer and fewer families will be able to put theirchildren through four years of college.

14

Suggest results or consequences

• To sum up, the costs of attending college are rising andfinancial aid for students is declining. Fewer and fewer futuremembers of the workforce are able to educate themselvesbeyond high school. As a result, the nation will waste theintelligence, imagination, and energy of a large segment of thepresent college-age generation.

15

Suggest a solution, make a recommendation, or call for action

• It is clear that the U.S. system of higher education is in trouble. For manystudents, four years of college is no longer possible because of increasingcosts and decreasing financial aid. To reverse this trend, we must demandthat the government increase its financial support of colleges anduniversities and restore financial aid programs. Our future depends on it.

16

Quote an authority on the topic:

• If our nation is to prosper, increased government funding foreducation is essential, even if it requires higher taxes. As HoraceMann argued in his Fifth Annual Report, a nation’s economicwealth will increase by having an educated public. It is therefore inthe self-interest of businesses to pay the taxes for public education.

17

Take-home exercise

Thesis statement practice P. 84-85.

Quiz next week.

Write your Process Writing paragraph, and bring it to class next week.

How to Make a Marriage Work?

Paragraph, Size 12, Times New Roman, 1.5 Space, Equal length, name and HW version up-right, title bold and centered, and within 1 page.

18

版權聲明

頁碼 作品 版權圖示 來源/作者

1-21 本作品轉載自Microsoft Office 2007 PowerPoint 設計主題範本-趨勢，依據Microsoft 服務合約及著作權法第46、52、65條合理使用本件作品。

19

版權聲明

版權聲明

頁碼 作品 版權圖示 來源/作者

3,4,13,

14

為老師參考書本，整理文意自行改寫。參考自：Oshima, A. and A. Hogue. (2014). Longman Academic Writing

Series (5th Edition). Pearson Longman. P.152-168

This work is used subject to the fair use doctrine of Article 46, 52, 65

Taiwan Copyright Act.

20

版權聲明

版權聲明

頁碼 作品 版權圖示 來源/作者

15,16,

17

為老師參考書本，整理文意自行改寫。參考自：Oshima, A. and A. Hogue. (2014). Longman Academic Writing

Series (5th Edition). Pearson Longman. P.152-168

This work is used subject to the fair use doctrine of Article 46, 52, 65

Taiwan Copyright Act.

21

版權聲明