Paragraph Writing 段落写作

Exercise 1
Insert the comma and the joining word (and, but, for, so) that logically connects the two thoughts in each sentence.
1. We knew the old desk had a secret drawer（抽屉）no one could find it.
2. I had to retype my term paper my little boy had scrawled（乱涂乱画）on it with a red crayon.（蜡笔）
3. It rains a lot this summer we have not had to water our garden.
4. Hong Kong will-be returned to China after July, 1997 its social and economic system is to remain unchanged for 50 years.
5. The exact number of Japanese companies in Hong Kong is not available it is said to be around 900.
Exercise 2
Choose a logical transitional word and write it in the space provided. In addition, put a semicolon before the transition and a comma after it.
Example: It was raining harder than ever; however, Bobby was determined to go to the amusement park.
1. Most people can do without food for a month_________ they
need two quarts of water a day to survive.
2. Jean's son was sick______ she delivered his newspaper for him.
3. I need to study hard I think_____ I' m going to need a tutor.
4. The bride's father apologized to the waiting
quests_________ he promised to return all the wedding gifts.
This chapter is concerned with paragraphs, rather than essays, but the technique of developing a paragraph is essentially the same as expanding an idea into an essay of several paragraphs, Therefore, the training of paragraph writing plays an important role in your writing, and also is an indispensable(必需的) step towards writing well.
I. General Remarks
1. The form of a paragraph
The form of a paragraph is distinctive: the first line is indented（缩格书写）, about one inch in handwriting and five spaces in typewritten copy. The indentation tells a reader that the material in the paragraph represents a separate unit of thought. Though graph may consist of a single sentence, it is usually a group of sentences, and a group of related sentences developing one central idea. A paragraph itself is a mini-essay.
2. Certain rules governing the construction of a paragraph.
A paragraph should be
unified--with all its sentences relevant to the central idea,（切题的）
coherent --with its organization following a definite plan, （紧凑连贯）adequately developed -- with its sentences adequately explaining the central idea.
A paragraph should also be
rich in interesting information.
3. The Topic Sentence
To write a paragraph, you first need to decide on your purpose. You need to decide in advance what idea you ate trying to communicate in your paragraph. Once you are sure of your idea, the next step to be taken is to make your idea clear to your reader. You can do this by stating your idea in a top/c sentence.
The topic sentence expresses your paragraph's central idea or purpose. It indicates what the paragraph is about, or what it will describe or discuss. It should not be supposed, however, that every paragraph must have a topic sentence. But in a paragraph of exposition or argument, the topic is as a rule definitely stated in a sentence. In a paragraph of narration or description, the topic sentence is usually implied rather than stated.
A topic sentence may appear in the beginning, or in the middle, or at the end of a paragraph, tit is a most common practice to begin a paragraph with a topic sentence and then develop and explain it by giving supporting details and specific examples. 4. Restrict your topic sentence carefully
Almost any statement or question can be made into a topic sentence, but in order to tell the reader what your paragraph will be about, your topic sentence should be not only clear but also restricted. The more precise it is, the better, since a paragraph is not long. The more general the topic sentence, the more difficulty you will have in developing your paragraph. Therefore, if your topic sentence is “What is love?”, it is not as good a topic sentence as “What is love among teenagers?”
The following are some of topic sentences expressed in the form of a statement:
1. Writing an outline is an aid to organizing a composition.
2. The library plays an important part in a student's life.
3. The work of the library needs improvement.
4. Exercise is important to the health.
5. Swimming is an excellent exercise.
6. Over-exercising is dangerous.
7. My desk-mate is a man of many talents.
8. Spring is the most pleasant season of the year.
9. Education is a glorious cause.
The above topic sentences are successful because they not only introduce limited topics, but also give the writer's opinion about each topic. Therefore, the most effective topic sentences are those that state both the topic and the writer's opinion or attitude toward that topic.
The following three points highlight the qualities of strong topic sentences.
1) Introduce the topic immediately. In this way your reader knows what you will write about, and you know what you will write about. Do not surprise your readers. Tell them immediately what you want to write.
2) Limit the topic. In this way you will have enough to write about and focus on only one major feature or point.
3) Give an opinion or an attitude or a reaction or an impression that the writer has about the topic. In this way you get readers interested in the topic and they will want to find out why you feel the way you do about your subject.
Here is one more topic sentence, which is successful because it introduces a limited topic clearly and gives the writer's opinion about that topic.
Everyone in My Writing Class This Monday Morning Looks Restless and Uncomfortable.
Topic: people in the writing class Monday morning
Opinion: restlessness(不耐烦的) and uncomfortableness
II. Write a unified paragraph
Unity means singleness of purpose or oneness of purpose. A paragraph concentrates on a single idea, all the facts, examples, reasons, and explanations, used to develop that idea must be relevant. If the material is not directly related to a
paragraph's controlling idea. The paragraph is a bad one. Therefore, a paragraph has unity when every sentence is relevant to the controlling idea. Any sentence that violates this unity should be deleted. The Controlling idea of a paragraph is called the topic sentence just discussed in the above section.
The following paragraph is unified because every sentence in it contributes to the controlling idea----- “The world is filled with many interesting sounds”
The world is filled with many interesting sounds. In a single day you may probably hear hundreds of different sounds. And you make or utter different sounds yourself when you work, move, or speak. Some sounds are unpleasant to the ears while others are very pleasant and sweet to hear. Some may be soft and melodious; others may be loud and terrible. Some sound high; others sound 1ow. So there are always interesting sounds in the air.
III. Construct Coherent Paragraphs
1.Coherence
Coherence refers to organization and connection. It means grouping sentences in a paragraph appropriately, consistently and logically. It deals with arranging, ordering, and connecting ideas and substance, A paragraph is said to be coherent when each sentence leads naturally and logically to the next in explaining the central idea. Thus, coherence is a matter of getting things in the right order while Unity is a matter of ideas and substance.
2.Sequence（先后顺序）
Coherence is achieved mainly by the logical sequence of ideas.
Read the following paragraph:
George goes through the same morning routine every weekday. At six he is wakened by an alarm clock and gets up. Then he shaves, brushes his teeth, washes his face, and dresses. After that he exercises deep-breathing in the garden for ten minutes. Then he has breakfast and reads the morning newspaper. At seven thirty he says goodbye to his family and leaves for his office.
This paragraph is a unified one because it has a controlling idea George goes through the same morning routine every weekday. All the supporting details towards the end of the paragraph explain how George goes through the routine. This is also a coherent paragraph because the writer puts the details down in a natural, chronological and logical order with the help of transitional words. If we delete some of the transitional words and change the order of the above paragraph, it becomes a disorderly and confusing paragraph as follows:
George goes through the same morning routine every weekday. He has breakfast and reads the morning newspaper. He shaves, rushes his teeth, washes: his face, and dresses. At seven thirty he says good-bye to his family and leaves for his office. At six he is wakened by alarm clock and gets up. He exercises deep-breath in the garden for ten minutes.
The individual sentences have not been changed and of course they are satisfactory. But something is clearly wrong with the paragraph as a whole -- it lacks
coherence. The whole paragraph gives an impression of disorderliness though it has unity. It is clear that write a good paragraph both unity and coherence are needed.
One way to achieve coherence is to arrange a paragraph’s details in a systematic way that is appropriate for the subject matter. For example, many writers place their supporting details in order of importance, often starting with the least important detail and ending with the most important one. This kind of paragraph development (paragraph development by order of importance) is an especially helpful way to gain coherence when you are writing an opinion or an argument. Study the following example.
Trees are useful to man. They give him shade. They provide him with wood and other products. They help to prevent drought and flood. Therefore, forests are known as invisible reservoirs（水库）.
Simple as it is, the above paragraph is coherent. The supporting details are placed in order of importance. Of the three services of the trees, the third is the most important one.
Another way to ensure a paragraph’s coherence is to add various transitions to alert the reader to the direction the developing idea is taking. The various transitions including connective words and phrases together with the repetition of certain key words, help cohere sentences like adhesives（胶粘剂）as well as make clear the relations between the sentences in a paragraph. See also the section on "Transitions Between Sentences”.
In the following long paragraph, the writer gains coherence by leading the reader from one sentence to the next with connectives:
1) Far more striking than any changes in the kinds of work done by women in the (U. S. A. ) labor force is the shift of wives and mothers from household activities to the world of paid employment.
2) Emphasis on the new work of women, however, should not obscure（遮掩）an equally important fact.
3) Today, as always most of the time and effort of American wives is devoted to their responsibilities within the home and the family circle.
4) This is true even of those who are in the labour force.
5) Since1890 the demands of paid work have become much lighter.
6) The normal work week has decreased from sixty to forty hours; paid holidays and vocations have become universal; and most of the hard, physical labor that work once required has been eliminated.
7) Bemuse of these developments, many women can work outside the home and still have time and energy left for home and family.
8) Moreover, most working mothers do not assume the burdens of a full schedule of paid work.
9) Among employed mothers of preschool children, four of five worked only part time or less than half the year in 1956.
10) Among those whose children were in school, three out of five followed the same
curtailed (=shortened) work schedule.
11) And even among working wives who had no children at home, only a little~ more
than half were year-round, full-time members of the labor force.
You can easily trace the devices that give this paragraph its coherence. The transition “however” connects the second sentence (2)to the first sentence (1); the adverb “today” links (3) to (2). The pronoun “this” joins (4) to (3), the phrase “Since 1890 ” connects(5) to (4), and (6) contains examples of the point made in the previous sentence.
The pronoun “these” in (7) continues the forward movement of ideas listed in (6). The transition “moreover” links (8) to (7). And the repetition of the preposition “among” at the beginning of, sentences (9), (10), and (11) ties them together, forcefully ending the paragraph.
IV. Transition Between Sentences
Transition means the movement from one sentence to the next. Smooth and logical transition connects sentences in meaningful ways and make clear the relationship between ideas. So each successive sentence in a paragraph should contain a transition, a link with preceding sentence. Sentences linked by transitional devices such as pronouns, repeated key words, transitional expressions, or parallel structure help create a unified paragraph. Let us discuss some of the basic ways to achieve good transition in a paragraph.
1. Use pronouns to refer to a person, idea or thing just mentioned in the preceding sentence, e.g.
To Better Van Metre this man was not an enemy but rather a suffering human being. She gave him water and tried to clean his terrible wounds.
- Janice Keyser Lester
A few months after we'd sold the motel. Mother arrived home with a used typewriter. It skipped between certain letters.
- Gerald Moore
2. Repeat a key word, phrase, or idea in the preceding sentence, e.g.
“That's all we can afford,”Mother said. "It's good enough to learn on.” And from that day on, as soon as the table was cleared and the dishes were done, Mother would disappear into her sewing room to practice.
Gerald Moore Many people have installed wood burning stoves in their homes this year. Wood is considerably cheaper to burn than oil because home heating oil has doubled in price in the past twelve months, but the price of wood has remained about the same. People who are concerned that rising oil price may force them to choose between eating properly and keeping warm are shopping for attractive, safe, and efficient wood burning stoves. Because of the growing interest in these stoves, there are dozens of new models, in a wide variety of styles and sizes to choose from. Manufacturers have sold thousands of these old-time heaters to homeowners this year.
3. Use transitional expressions to point lout the-thought relationship between sentences. Below is a list of various commonly used transitional expressions.
1) Words that denote addition:
and, and then, again, also, too, besides, likewise, moreover, further, furthermore, in addition,' nor, next, equally important, first, second, third, in the first place,
in the second place, finally, last.
2) Expressions that denote example:
for example, for instance, to illustrate.
3) Words and expressions that denote comparison or contrast:.
similarly, in the same way, likewise, in like manner, equally important, in contrast, on the other hand, on the contrary, however, nevertheless, instead, yet, and yet, even so, but, although, meanwhile, still, notwithstanding, for all that, at the same time, although this may be true, otherwise, nonetheless
4) Words and expressions that denote results or conclusion:
therefore, so, consequently, thus, as a result, in conclusion, to conclude, to sum up, hence, accordingly, thereupon, then
5) Words and expressions that denote concession:
of course, although, it is true
6.) Words and expressions that denote time or order of importance:
first (second, third, etc. ), now, before, after, next, then, later, once, finally, after that, first of all, to begin with, until, more important, most important, at length, soon, after a few days, in the meantime, afterward, in the past
7) Words and expressions that denote place:
here, beyond, nearby, opposite to, adjacent to, on the opposite side
8) Expressions that denote purpose:
to this end, for this purpose, with this object
9) Words and expressions that denote summary, repetition and intensification:
to sum up, in brief, on the whole, in sum, in short, as I have said, in other words, that is, to be sure, as has been noted, in fact, indeed, to tell the truth, in any event.
V．Ways of Developing Paragraphs (铺陈段落方法)
The controlling idea in a paragraph needs to be developed fully with relevant details. The major cause of a poorly developed paragraph is overgeneralization, or lack of details.
A paragraph can be well developed in a variety of ways, according to the purpose of its writer and its function in a larger discourse. If You want to tell a story, you can use chronological order. If you wish to say how something is done, you may explain a step-by-step process. Therefore, the method of paragraph development that you choose depends on your purpose. The following are some of the commonly used methods of paragraph development:
1. Time
2. process
3. detail
4. example
5. space
6. comparison/contrast
7. cause and effect 8. classification
9. definition
Two or more methods may often be used in a single paragraph. The important thing to remember is that which ever method you use to develop your paragraph, you must confine yourself to the topic (sentence).
1. Developing the paragraph by time or chronologically （按时间顺序铺陈段落）
This method is also called chronological sequencing. When you tell a story or recount（详细描述）an event, the cleverest and easiest way for you to choose is to state things in order of time: earlier things are mentioned before later things. (The first thing first and the last thing last.)
Study the following paragraph:
We planned a surprise party for Dona recently. She never had a birthday party and she was twenty years old. First, we carefully made a guest list. We included many of her friends from school, a few of her other friends from church, and all of her brothers and sisters. Second, we planned a suitable menu. We needed some refreshing drinks and food. We were going to serve fruit punch（果汁）and coffee. We also wanted chicken sandwiches, a birthday cake with twenty candles, and ice-cream. Third, we planned entertainment. A boy did magic tricks skillfully. Another boy played the guitar well. We all liked group singing. We had a lot of records and a record player. Everyone helped. The party became a secret community project.
Notice that the first sentence is the topic sentence, which clearly introduces the main point of the paragraph. The second sentence explains the first one by answering the question “Why did we plan the party?”Succeeding sentences relates chronologically the steps involved in planning a surprise party, a celebration of Dona’s birthday. These succeeding sentences answer the question, “What did we do?” Finally, the last two sentences summarize the paragraph.
The next two paragraphs describe two different events that took place in a few minutes, following a chronological arrangement:
a. Jack was driving clown one of Scotland’s highest mountains, when he noticed that his brakes weren’t working. A look of fear came to his face. He pulled on the hand brake hard, but nothing happened. It was unbelievable, but true he couldn’t slow the car down. He made a quick decision. He pulled the, door open, and jumped out, rolling into the road. As he lay there he saw the car go downhill very quickly, and then fall over the edge of the road. He couldn’t see anything, but he heard it break into a thousand pieces at the bottom of the mountain.
---Michael Carrier
b. My heart gave a leap when I heard the announcement that our train would soon arrive at its destination--- Beijing. Like other passengers, I began to collect my things,
and put my mug, towel, atlas, apples, and other things into my bag. With the tune of a beautiful song the train pulled into the station and gently stopped by a platform. I walked out of the train and was carried forward by the stream of people into an underground passage and then into a big hall. As I stepped out of the station, I was dazzled( 目眩) by the bright autumn skies of Beijing. Though I had been on the train for more than thirty hours and spent a sleepless night, I didn't feel tired at all, and I believed my days in Beijing would be as sunny as the skies.
---A student
2.Developing the paragraph by process(过程，步骤)
3. Developing the paragraph by details
4. Developing the paragraph by examples
5. Developing the paragraph by space
6. Developing the paragraph by comparison and contrast
7. Developing the paragraph by cause and effect
8. Developing the paragraph by classification
9. Developing the paragraph definition（定义）。