miércoles, 1 de junio de 2016

ENTRY N° 8 A WELL WRITTEN PARAGRAPH.


ENTRY N° 8.  A well written paragraph.

The video " Parts of a paragraph-English Academic Writing" gives a clear explanation of how to write a good paragraph.
Site "engvid Free English video lessons".





A well written paragraph should have:

1) A topic sentence.
Introduce an interesting topic and your opinion about it.

2) A body.
 It´s the heart of the topic sentence.
Give supporting details (in specific order) and arguments.

3) A closing sentence.
 It has two functions: Re estate the topic sentence in a different way.
                                   Keep the audience thinking.


Examples of Topic Sentences:

1. Many politicians deplore the passing of the old family-sized farm, but I´m not so sure.

I saw around Velva a release from what was like slavery to the tyrannical soil, release from the ignorance that darkens the soul and from the loneliness that corrodes it. In this generation my Velva friends have rejoined the general American society that their pioneering fathers left behind when they first made the barren trek in the days of the wheat rush. As I sit here in Washington writing this, I can feel their nearnness. (from Eric Sevareid, "Velva, North Dakota")


2.There are two broad theories concerning what triggers a human´s inevitable decline to death.

The first is the wear-and-tear hypothesis that suggests the body eventually succumbs to the environmental insults of life. The second is the notion that we have an internal clock which is genetically programmed to run down. Supporters of the wear- and-tear theory maintain that the very practice of breathing causes us to age because inhaled oxygen produces toxic by products. Advocaters of the internal clock theory believe that individual cells are told to stop dividing and thus eventually to die by, for example, hormones produced by the brain o by their own genes. (from Debra Blank, "The Eternal Quest" (edited).


3.We commonly look on the discipline of war as vastly more rigid than any discipline necessary in time of peace, but this is an error.

The strictest military descipline imaginable is still looser than that prevailing in the average assembly-line. The soldiers, at worst, is still able to exercise the highest conceivable functions of freedom- that is, he or she is permitted to steal and to kill. No discipline prevailing in peace gives him or her anything remotely resembing. The soldier is, in war, in the position of a free adult; in peace he or she is almost always in the position of a child. In war all things are excused by succes, even violations of discipline. In peace, speaking generally, success is inconceivable except as a function of discipline. (from H.L Mencken,"Reflections of war") edited.


4. Although the interpretation of traffic signals may seem highly standarized, close observations reveals regional variations across the country, distinguishing the East Coast from Central Canada and the West, as surely as dominant dialects or political inclinations.

In Montreal, a flashing red traffic light instructs drivers to careen even more wildly through intersections heavily populated with pedestrians and oncoming vehicles. In starting contrast, an amber light in Calgary warns drivers to scream to a halt on the off chance that there might be a pedestrian within 500 metres who might consider crossing at some unspecified time within the current day. In my home town in New Brunswick, finally, traffic lights (along with painted lines and posted speed limits) do not apply to tractors, all terrain vehicles, or pick up trucks, which together account for most vehicleson the road. In fact, were any observant Canadian dropped from an alien space vessel at an unspecified intersection anywhere in this vast land, he or she could almost certainly oriented him or herself according to the surrounding traffic patterns.