Writing Your Blog Post:
First Steps
If you haven’t already done so, please
create a list of everything you’ve
learned about your research topic.
If you have already created a list of
everything you’ve learned about your
research topic, make a list of what you
wanted to know but couldn’t find
information about.
Another Preliminary Step:
Labeling Your Source Texts
•
•
Take out each article or book you found
while researching, and in big letters, write
the last name of its author at the top of the
page.
Then highlight the author’s name so it
really stands out.
Turn Your What-I’ve-Learned List
into a Series of Topic Sentences and
Supporting Details
What are topic sentences?
What are supporting details?
How do they relate?
Topic Sentence

Expresses the main idea of the paragraph:
not what the paragraph is “about” but the
point the paragraph makes about the
subject

Often appears at the beginning of the
paragraph.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/engagement/2/1/29/
Supporting Details
Elaborate
 Build On
 Develop or expand or explain the point
made in the topic sentence

How about an example?
The summer picnic gave ladies a chance to show
off their baking hands. On the barbecue pit, chickens
and spareribs sputtered in their own fat and in a sauce
whose recipe was guarded in the family like a scandalous
affair. However, every true baking artist could reveal her
prize to the delight and criticism of the town. Orange
sponge cakes and dark brown mounds dripping
Hershey’s chocolate stood layer to layer with ice-white
coconuts and light brown caramels. Pound cakes sagged
with their buttery weight and small children could no
more resist licking the icings than their mothers could
avoid slapping the sticky fingers.
from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Let’s do a bit more practice
identifying topic sentences and
supporting details.
Now let’s return to the list you’ve
created.
Let’s say you researched love.
Here’s your list about what you learned:
Love has a lot of emotions.
What are the emotions that make up
love?
Now what?
What question(s) can this writer ask
him/herself to take the next writing step?
You’ve asked, What are those
emotions?
What’s the answer?
Let’s see.
Love has a lot of emotions.
hope
 passion
 attraction
 fear
 anger
 jealousy
 sadness
 happiness

We have our topic sentence and
supporting bullet points.
What’s next?
We realize each emotion needs to
be discussed in its own paragraph.
Let’s look at an example together.
Hope is a big part of love.
We’ve got the topic sentence. Now what?
Hope is a big part of love.
 Define “hope”
 Say what my research says about how
hope connects to love
 Say more what my research says about
how hope connects to love
Hope is a big part of love.
 Definition: feeling of possibility about
the future, good life can become better
 Sense that their lives can be fuller
 Hope and openness
Hope is a big part of love.
 Definition: feeling of possibility about the
future, good life can become better
(Adler)
 Sense that their lives can be fuller (Lumm)
 Hope and openness (Stevens)
Now it’s your turn.
1. Choose one item from your what-I’ve-learnedabout-my-topic list to develop into a paragraph.
Be sure to choose a main point rather than a
supporting detail.
2. Write that main point as a topic sentence.
3. Create a bulleted list of details that support
this main point.
4. Next to each bullet point, write down the
author of the article where you found the
information in this bullet point.
Next step: Write your
supporting details in sentence
form to create a paragraph.
Hope is a big part of love.
 Hope is a feeling of possibility about the future, a
sense that even a good life can become better
(Adler).
 To experience love, people need to have a sense
that their lives can be fuller. They have to hope
for even more meaning and emotional
satisfaction than they already have (Lumm).
 When people are hopeful, they are also open,
including to other people. This openness allows
people to connect to one another and that
connection can develop into love (Stevens).
Be sure to write at least four
sentences in your supporting
detail section for this paragraph.
More is fine, too!
Hope is a big part of love. Hope is a
feeling of possibility about the future, a sense
that even a good life can become better (Adler).
To experience love, people need to have a
sense that their lives can be fuller. They have to
hope for even more meaning and emotional
satisfaction than they already have (Lumm).
When people are hopeful, they are also open,
including to other people. This openness allows
people to connect to one another and that
connection can develop into love (Stevens).
Your turn: Write your supporting details in
sentence form to create a paragraph.
Let’s come back to the sample
paragraph.
What supporting detail(s) does
this writer need to add?
What questions could you as a
reader ask to help this writer find
additional supporting details?
Hope is a big part of love. Hope is a feeling of
possibility about the future, a sense that even a good life
can become better (Adler). To experience love, people
need to have a sense that their lives can be fuller. They
have to hope for even more meaning and emotional
satisfaction than they already have (Lumm). What kind of
emotional satisfaction? Do your sources give any specific
examples that you could include? When people are
hopeful, they are also open, including to other people.
This openness allows people to connect to one another
and that connection can develop into love (Stevens). Do
your sources tell about any research about this issue of
openness? What do they say? How do you know
whether you’re open enough? How can a connection
become love?
Now it’s your turn.
1. Trade papers with your seat partner.
2. Read what he/she has written so far.
3. Write at least one question to help your partner
develop his/her supporting details more.
4. Trade back.
5. Read your partner’s question.
6. Do your sources provide information that could
answer this question? If yes, write that information
in your own words, and add it to your paragraph.
7. If not, write that question down as something you
might need to research.
Let’s take a break!
Now it’s time to write another
paragraph for your blog post.
1. Choose one item from your what-I’ve-learned-about-my-topic list to develop into a
paragraph. Be sure to choose a main point rather than a supporting detail.
2. Write that main point as a topic sentence.
3. Create a bulleted list of details that support this main point.
4. Next to each bullet point, write down the author of the article where you found the
information in this bullet point.
5. Write your topic sentence and supporting details in paragraph form.
6. Trade with a partner, and read each other’s second paragraphs.
7. Write questions that will help your partner develop at least one of his/her supporting
points.
8. Trade back. If your sources provide information that could answer this question, write
that information in your own words, and add it to your paragraph.
9. If not, write that question down as something you might need to research.
10. Be sure to write at least four sentences in your supporting detail section for this
paragraph. More is fine, too!
Please come to next class with at
least four paragraphs of your blog
post written. If you can finish this
today in class, fabuloso! If not,
please do so for homework.
1. Write a total of four topic sentences.
2. Write the bullet-pointed specific details
for those topic sentences (including the last
name of the author of each source)