How to Write a Paragraph

МИНИСТЕРСТВО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ И НАУКИ РФ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЕ ОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНОЕ УЧРЕЖДЕНИЕ ВЫСШЕГО ПРОФЕССИОНАЛЬНОГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ «ИРКУТСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ ЛИНГВИСТИЧЕСКИЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ» HOW TO WRITE A PARAGRAPH Методические указания для студентов Иркутск 2011 2 Печатается по решению редакционно-издательского совета Иркутского государственного лингвистического университета ББК 81. 432.1 - 923 How to write a paragraph [Текст]: методические указания для студентов 3-4 курсов языковых вузов / сост.: Панченко Н. <...> Н., кандидат филологических наук, доцент кафедры английской филологии Иркутского государственного лингвистического университета; Помешкина Н. <...> А., кандидат филологических наук, доцент кафедры иностранных языков Байкальского государственного университета экономики и права © Иркутский государственный лингвистический университет, 2011 3 Defining and Looking at the Paragraph A paragraph is a group of related sentences that develops one main idea. <...> A paragraph usually occurs with other paragraphs in a longer piece of writing – an essay, an article, or a letter, for example. <...> Topic Sentence and Body Most paragraphs contain one main idea to which all the sentences relate. <...> The topic sentence states this main idea. <...> The body of the paragraph develops and supports this main idea with particular facts, details, and examples: I allow the spiders the run of the house. <...> I figure that any predator that hopes to make a living on whatever smaller creatures might blunder into a four-inch-square bit of space in the corner of the bathroom where the tub meets the floor needs every bit of my support. <...> Large spiders in barns have been known to trap, wrap, and suck hummingbirds, but there's no danger of that here. <...> I tolerate the webs, only occasionally sweeping away the very dirtiest of them after the spider itself has scrambled to safety. <...> Then I wanted a cup of coffee, so I picked from the drainer my mug, which was still warm from the hot rinse water, and across the rim of the mug, strand after strand, was a spider web. – Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek The first sentence of the paragraph above is the topic sentence. <...> The topic sentence is more general than the other sentences in the paragraph. <...> The other sentences in the paragraph provide specific information relating to the topic sentence. <...> Because the topic <...>