Organizing information

Topic sentences and paragraphing

Adapted from: 1) Turner, Dorothy. Writing Topic Sentences. University of Ottawa.2) Academic Writing in English website (http://sana.tkk.fi/awe) 3) Johnson-Sheehan, Richard (Dr.), Purdue OWL, ppt. How to Achieve Coherence at a Micro level (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/ppt/2008_Micro_727.ppt#259,1,How to Achieve Coherence at a Micro Level)

CONTENT• Topic sentences

• Analysing a topic sentence

• Developing and building paragraphs

• Presenting information

TOPIC SENTENCES• A topic sentence (or a focus sentence)

organizes an entire paragraph.

• Works in two directions simultaneously:– relates the paragraph to the essay's thesis,

acting as a signpost for the argument of the paper as a whole

– defines the scope of the paragraph itself.

Analyzing a topic sentence

1. Topic sentence = #1 (but not always!)2. general statement

– wider in its scope than the rest of the sentences in that paragraph.

– should be general enough so that it can be supported by specific details in later sentences.

3. Topic sentences should always contain both a topic and a controlling idea.

The topic typically occurs before the verb and is what the paragraph is about, while the controlling idea is what you want to say about the topic.

4. The controlling idea should be repeated (preferably, in subject position) in each of the sentences that follow the topic sentence

The topic sentence…

• …introduces a new topic, – The Finnish higher education system consists of

universities and polytechnics

• enumerative (listing) paragraph – There are a number of good reasons for

immigrating to Finland.

• or a claim of some sort. – Finnish is an easy language to learn

What’s the topic sentence here?

Business school professors perennially debate over whether maintaining an old employee is more costly than hiring a new one. The issue has strong proponents oneach side. Human resource experts maintain that keeping an old employee requires fewer man hours for training and orientation. However, management gurus insist that having the right person in the right position increases the overall productivity of a team or workgroup. Betweenthese two arguments are the economists who study new hiring practices in a company-specific context.

For more information on topic sentences…

http://sana.tkk.fi/awe/cohesion/topsen/index.html

Developing paragraphs• Paragraphs can be used to narrate, describe, compare

and contrast or analyze information• A paragraph is well-structured when every sentence

develops the point made in the topic sentence.• It must have a single focus and it must contain no

irrelevant facts. • Every sentence must contribute to the paragraph by

explaining, exemplifying, or expanding the topic sentence.

• "What main point am I trying to convey here?" (topic sentence)

• "Does every sentence clearly relate to this idea?"

Building paragraphs

• There are several ways in which you can build good, clear paragraphs: – Constant pattern – progressive pattern – hypertopic pattern– Split pattern

Constant

This is the most common and easiest formof paragraph development: you simply expand on a general topic sentence using examples or illustrations.

Progressive

• Process description often follows a chronological sequence

HypertopicThis is used when giving more specific subtypes of the main subject. Could replace a list.

superordinate

subordinate

Split topicSplit topic method can be used - one point for

A, then 1 point for B

Example – what kind of development?

Business school professors perennially debate over whether maintaining an old employee is more costly than hiring a new one. The issue has strong proponents oneach side. Human resource experts maintain that keeping an old employee requires fewer man hours for training and orientation. However, management gurus insist that having the right person in the right position increases the overall productivity of a team or workgroup. Betweenthese two arguments are the economists who study new hiring practices in a company-specific context.

Hypertopic?

Business school professors perennially debate over whether maintaining an old employee is more costly than hiring a new one. The issue has strong proponents oneach side. Human resource experts maintain that keeping an old employee requires fewer man hours for training and orientation. However, management gurus insist that having the right person in the right position increases the overall productivity of a team or workgroup. Betweenthese two arguments are the economists who study new hiring practices in a company-specific context.

Superordinate

subordinate

Presenting information in a paragraph 1

• ’givennew’ principle– Introduction to physics or Quantum physics?– Familiar information or new information?

• The brain responds to ’old’ information first. It is easier to process the ’new’ information based on the ’old’ information.

Example – can you find the given-new?

Business school professors perennially debate over whether maintaining an old employee is more costly than hiring a new one. The issue has strong proponents oneach side. Human resource experts maintain that keeping an old employee requires fewer man hours for training and orientation. However, management gurus insist that having the right person in the right position increases the overall productivity of a team or workgroup. Betweenthese two arguments are the economists who study new hiring practices in a company-specific context.

Notice the Given-New structure

Business school professors perennially debate over

whether maintaining an old employee is more costly

than hiring a new one. The issue has strong proponents on

each side. Human resource experts maintain that keeping

an old employee requires fewer man hours for training and

orientation. However, management gurus insist

that having the right person in the right position increases

the overall productivity of a team or workgroup. Between

these two arguments are the economists who study new

hiring practices in a company-specific context.

new information = red old information = blue

Presenting info 2

• ’light before heavy’ = short simple subject first.

• Nouns building blocks of a sentence.

• Noun phrases one head noun + a lot of stuff defining it.– These can be veeerrrrrrryyyyy long.

• 7+2 principle – we can’t remember much past the 9th word of a sentence

What’s wrong with this sentence?

• 1Numerous government agencies have requested new technologies for use in government-certified Explosive Detection Systems (EDS) that screen checked luggage for aircraft 2 We have shipped the Enivironmental Protection Agency's National Homeland Security Research Center in Cincinnati, Ohio an EDS system.

New and improved…

We have shipped an EDS system to

the Enivironmental Protection

 Agency's National Homeland

Security Research Center in

Cincinnati.

How do I know when to start a new paragraph?

You should start a new paragraph :• when you begin a new idea or point. • to contrast information or ideas. • when your readers need a pause. • when you are ending your introduction

or starting your conclusion.

Taken from: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/606/01/

Back to the reference article

Switch papers with the person sitting next to you. Choose a paragraph and try to:

1. Identify the topic sentence.

2. Which method was used to develop the paragraph (Detail? Compare/contrast? Process? Combo?)

3. Check how the information is organized in each sentence. Do they follow the givennew, light before heavy principles?

Homework

• Pick 3 paragraphs in your reference article and go through it for things we looked at today.

• Hand them in for the next class (scan/original)

• Text book reading – – Chapter 1.10 Organizing paragraphs– Chapter 2.10 Academic Style– Chapter 3.2 Academic Vocabulary