Essay Writing Day 2 Body Paragraphs P.E.E. and Transitions Body Paragraphs ➔ The point of a body paragraph is to support, strengthen, and help prove your thesis. ➔ Each body paragraph should have one clear purpose for being in your paper and stay on one topic. ◆ You should be able to distill or boil down each body paragraph in one sentence. ➔ Fluff- Filler sentences or words just to take up space and should not be in your paper. Every sentence should be purposeful in supporting the main point of each paragraph which in turns supports the thesis. Sentence—-(supports)--->Paragraph—-(supports)------>Thesis P.E.E. Paragraph Structure One way to think about structuring your paragraphs is to use the P.E.E. paragraph structure. Make sure each of your body paragraphs have the following parts: ● P = Point ● E = Evidence ● E = Expansion 1. What is the Point you are Making in the Paragraph? Make sure your paragraph has a point. Often, the point is the topic sentence. ● What is the point of this paragraph? ● What claim is being made? ● What will this paragraph prove or discuss? ● Reveal your point early on in each paragraph. 2. Evidence ➔ After establishing your point, provide information in the form of evidence to support your topic sentence. Here are types of evidence you might include: ➔ Facts, details, reasons, examples ➔ Statistics, polls, percentages, data from research studies ➔ Information from credible research or course readings ➔ Expert opinions and analysis from experts on the topic ➔ Personal experience or stories from your life or others (mostly used for reflective writing rather than argumentative) 3. Expansion ➔ The expansion is the writer’s analysis, elaboration, evaluation, explanation, or interpretation of the point and information that connects the information with the point (topic sentence) and the thesis. Without this step, your paragraph may be made up solely of someone else's work. Providing an explanation ensures you integrate your research and include your own academic work as well. ➔ What does the provided information mean? ➔ How does it relate to your overall argument and support your thesis? ➔ Why is this information important/significant/meaningful? Transitions Transition-sentences bring out the logical relation between ideas and should begin each new paragraph. You want your paper to read like a continuous argument which good transitions help to facilitate. Words like ‘however’, ‘so’, ‘additionally’ do indicate a logical relation between paragraphs, but they are weak. A strong transition makes the relation explicit… Examples No transition: In some cultures sympathy plays a role in moral decision-making. Weaker transition: However, conflicts between principle and emotion more often occur when there is a conflict between the moral values of different cultures. Stronger transition: While conflict between morality and sympathy can occur in the context of a single cultural code, it more often arises in cross-cultural conflicts. Transition Words 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. While… Although…. Though it may appear… Seeing that… After considering… However, https://www.sfu.ca/~etiffany/teaching/phil120/transitions.html https://writingcenter.uagc.edu/body-paragraphs
