PARAGRAPH
FUNCTIONS
AT THE END OF THE LESSON,
STUDENTS MUST BE ABLE TO:
1) Apply strategies for writing attention-
grabbing introductions;
2) Explain how to write paragraphs that
help develop the thesis statement;
3) Describe the function of the transition
paragraph; and
4) Enumerate strategies for writing
effective concluding paragraphs.
TO UNDERSTAND
HOW
PARAGRAPHS
HELP TO
DEVELOP A
THESIS, THINK OF
THEM AS
LANDMARKS ON
A MAP.
INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH
• presents the material
• gains the reader’s attention
• sets the tone and parameters of the article
• does not go into detail, just gives a general
idea of the paper by introducing its thesis
statement
STRATEGIES IN CATCHING THE
READER’S ATTENTION
• interesting story or anecdote
• compelling or surprising statistics
• provocative question
• attention grabbing quotation or piece of
dialogue
• brief example
What particular strategy
is used in each of the following
introductory paragraphs?
TOPIC:
AGRIBUSINESS IS DEVOURING THE SMALL
FARMER
Is it true that bigger is always
better? Could it be that society’s
insatiable desire for more is in many
ways giving people less? Once society
has accepted the premise that more
choice is better, is it possible to reverse
that trend? For small, local, familyowned businesses, more and bigger has
been anything but better.
TOPIC: WOMEN IN POLITICS
“There cannot be true democracy
unless women’s voices are heard” (Hillary
Rodham Clinton). A democracy is a system
of government that places the power in the
hands of the people. If individuals in a
given society are not granted equal access
and representation, then that government
cannot claim to be a true democracy. The
lack of female voices in the Unites States
Government creates an imbalance of
power based on gender. Despite the
smaller percentage of women currently
involved in high level government positions,
pioneers like Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi,
and Condoleeza Rice are leading the way
towards gender equality in politics.
TOPIC: CHOOSING A LIFELONG CAREER
Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft,
could spend one million dollars per day,
every day, seven days a week and
would not run out of money until he was
311 years old! Most would agree that he
has reached a point of financial
security. In fact, it would be almost
impossible to figure out how one could
spend one million dollars per day. But,
what really is financial security? How do
we know when enough is enough?
DEVELOPMENT PARAGRAPHS
• the basic building blocks of writing
• have two jobs; they define each new
stage of the article and gives the
concrete details of the material (Stafford,
2009)
• contain a topic sentence that link/unite
both to the topic sentence of the
surrounding paragraphs and the thesis
statement
LET US EXAMINE THIS
SAMPLE ESSAY.
How to Bore the Children
by Charles Eisenstein
HOW TO BORE THE CHILDREN
Here is how to make a child bored: first and
foremost, keep him indoors so that the infinitude of
nature, its endless variation and chaotic messiness is
replaced by a finite, orderly, predictable realm. Second,
through television and video games, habituate him to
intense stimuli so that everything else seems boring by
comparison. Third, eliminate as much as possible any
unstructured time with other children, so that he loses his
capacity for creative play and needs entertainment
instead. Fourth, shorten his attention span with fastpaced programming, dumbed-down books, and
frequent interruptions of his play. Fifth, hover over him
whenever possible to stunt his self-trust and make him
dependent on outside stimulation. Sixth, hurry him from
activity to activity to create anxiety about time and
eliminate the easy sense of timelessness native to the
young.
No one, of course, sets out on purpose
to strip away their children’s most primal selfsufficiency — the self-sufficiency of play —
but that is the net effect of a culture fixated
on safety, bound to schedules, and
addicted to entertainment.
In a former time, children, despite a
dearth of complicated toys, were rarely
bored. Ask your grandparents whether they
were bored as children, with their bikes, bats
and balls, simple dolls that didn’t speak or
move by themselves, in the days before
television. Boredom, in fact, is a very recent
word, apparently not having appeared in
print until the mid-19th century. It is not a
natural state, and did not exist in state of
nature, or in a state anywhere near nature. It
is a symptom of our alienation.
TRANSITION PARAGRAPH
• as short as a single sentence or two
• marks a shift in the paper from one
section to another, or from one idea or
topic to another
Boredom, however, is quite good for
the economy. It motivates all kinds of
consumption, an endless hunger to keep
ourselves entertained. It points therefore
to a need that was once met without
money, but that is now met with money;
the phenomenon of boredom and its
alleviation exemplifies a much more
general economic principle.
In order for the (money) economy to grow,
some function once exercised without money
must be converted into a good or a service. One
can view economic growth as a progressive
stripmining of nature and community, turning the
former into commodities and the latter into paid
services, depleting, respectively, the natural and
social commons. Pollute the water and sell
bottled water; disempower folk healing and
make people pay for medical care; destroy
cultural traditions that bestow identity and sell
brand name sneakers… the examples are
endless. Boredom is a symptom of a similar
stripmining of what was once a kind of wealth
native to us all: the ability to feel good doing
nothing, the ability to create our own fun, a
general sense of sovereignty over our own time.
This is a form of what I call spiritual capital.
As I write this, my six-year-old sits a few feet
away, wholly absorbed in threading a colored
string through an old tape roll. Without a screen in
front of him, his brain must make its own images —
an ability that counts among the forms of spiritual
capital. Before that he was begging to be allowed
to watch a video. His whining and cajoling seemed
almost like an addict wanting a fix. I haven’t tried
to isolate him from society. Even though we don’t
have TV, we do have videos, and he still gets
plenty of that kind of thing elsewhere. Besides,
there are rarely any kids playing outside. Their
parents won’t let them, at least not in this
neighborhood. They are afraid: afraid of nature,
afraid of other people, afraid of what might
happen, suspicious of play, loath to have their
children unsupervised.
CONCLUDING PARAGRAPH
• implicitly wraps up the paper and
then gives a distinctive perspective
on the material discussed so that the
thesis statement will be
reemphasized
A GOOD CONCLUSION MUST:
• stress the importance of the thesis
statement,
• give the essay a sense of
completeness, and
• leave a final impression on the
reader.
HERE’S THE CONCLUDING
PARAGRAPH OF OUR SAMPLE ESSAY.
Let us create a world of real wealth, where
our ability to play and imagine are intact,
and where the outdoors is full of children.
OTHER BASIC STRATEGIES
Writing effective concluding
paragraphs
1 ECHOING THE INTRODUCTION
Introduction
From the parking lot, I could see the towers of the castle of
the Magic Kingdom standing stately against the blue sky. To the right,
the tall peak of The Matterhorn rose even higher. From the left, I could
hear the jungle sounds of Adventureland. As I entered the gate, Main
Street stretched before me with its quaint shops evoking an oldfashioned small town so charming it could never have existed. I was
entranced. Disneyland may have been built for children, but it brings
out the child in adults.
Conclusion
I thought I would spend a few hours at Disneyland, but here I
was at 1:00 A.M., closing time, leaving the front gates with the now
dark towers of the Magic Kingdom behind me. I could see tired
children, toddling along and struggling to keep their eyes open as best
they could. Others slept in their parents' arms as we waited for the
parking lot tram that would take us to our cars. My forty-year-old feet
ached, and I felt a bit sad to think that in a couple of days I would be
leaving California, my vacation over, to go back to my desk. But then I
smiled to think that for at least a day I felt ten years old again.
2 CHALLENGING THE READER
There is still a role for study,
research, and education.
However, we need to examine our
emphasis on education for the
sake of a piece of paper, and to
learn the real meaning and
revolutionary challenge of
knowledge.
3 LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Without well-qualified teachers,
schools are little more than buildings
and equipment. If higher-paying careers
continue to attract the best and the
brightest students, there will not only be
a shortage of teachers, but the teachers
available may not have the best
qualifications. Our youth will suffer. And
when youth suffers, the future suffers.
4 POSING QUESTIONS
Campaign advertisements should
help us understand the candidate's
qualifications and positions on the issues.
Instead, most tell us what a boob or knave
the opposing candidate is, or they present
general images of the candidate as a
family person or God-fearing citizen. Do
such advertisements contribute to creating
an informed electorate or a people who
choose political leaders the same way they
choose soft drinks and soap?
THE CLEARER THE
SIGNPOSTS ARE,
THE EASIER IT IS TO
GET TO YOUR
DESTINATION.
LOOSELY
CONNECTED
SENTENCES MAKE
THE RIDE BUMPY
AND MAY EVEN
GET SOMEONE
LOST.
EXERCISE
Revise this introduction by:
1) Making the sentences grammatical.
2) Combining sentences when needed.
3) Making the whole paragraph
attention-grabbing.
I want to explain about one Korean
general. His name is Soon-shin Lee. He
used to protect our country more than
100 years ago. He invented a special ship
for Korean navy. It was effective to
defeat enemies over the sea. And when
he died, he was also at war. He got shot
from the enemy. He finally fell down, but
he ordered to a soldier nearby, “Do not
tell anybody that I’m dying.” Until his
death, he wanted to give his soldiers
boldness to defeat the enemy. Korean
navy won from that battle.
REFERENCES:
Eisenstein, C. How to bore the children. Retrieved from
http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/how-to-bore-the-children/
Literacy Education Online. Retrieved from
http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/conclude.html on
September 12, 2013
Writing Effective Paragraphs. Retrieved from http://writesite.athabascau.ca/documentation/writing-effectiveparagraphs.pdf on September 10, 2013
http://www.waunakee.k12.wi.us/faculty/lcarothers/EffectiveWriting/
Reflective/Attention%20Getters.pdf
http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/fwalters/essaybasic.html