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Writing Program Terminology
Topic Sentence — first sentence in a body paragraph; provides subject and
commentary (an opinion about the subject); main idea for the paragraph;
o Thesis — sentence with a subject and an opinion that drives the essay;
what the essay is about; in the one paragraph essay only, it is identical to
the topic sentence and the two terms may be interchanged.
Concrete Details (CD) — specific details that form the core of the body
paragraphs; specific facts, examples, support, proof, a text passage, evidence,
etcetera; never an opinion or a question.
Commentary (CM) — opinion; including insight, analysis, interpretation,
feelings, explanation, etcetera
Chunk — a sub-group within a paragraph consisting of sentences of concrete
detail and commentary expressing a unified idea about the topic; the smallest
unified group of thoughts you can write.
Ratio — the proportion of CDs and CMs used in a chunk; in Language Arts,
this is 1 CD to 2 CMs, 1:2.
Weaving — blending CDs and CMs within the same sentence; a closing
sentence may include weaving. [Weaving is to be avoided otherwise, until you
have mastery of the difference between CD and CM, usually discouraged until
later in the 10th grade year, think Term B.]
Closing Sentence — last sentence in a body paragraph, pulls together your
support for your topic sentence; restates the topic as a conclusion based on the
evidence and argument from the chunks of CD and CM in this paragraph
8 part paragraph – a paragraph of two chunks in a ratio of 1CD:2CM; it
begins with a topic sentence (TS), continues with two chunks, and ends with a
closing sentence (CS); the pattern is TS CD CM CM CD CM CM CS.