This may be the most informative page ever on topic sentences. You will learn a mountain of topic-sentence theory and advice from five classic books on writing well. However, I also analyze the paragraphs from these classic books to see if they follow their own...
In one of my favorite informal experiments, Professor Arthur A. Stern removed the paragraph breaks from a section of text from “Fundamentals of Good Writing” (1950) and had English teachers reparagraph it. Only 5 out of 100 teachers reparagraphed it as the original...
Students want to know, “Why doesn’t every paragraph have a topic sentence? How do real writers create paragraphs?” Do you see topic sentences in all of the paragraphs you read? Well, it’s not your imagination. Not all paragraphs have topic sentences. This is not just...
“What’s your point?” That’s the most critical concept in writing. It’s crucial at the paragraph level and the whole composition level. Writers need clear and organized thinking throughout the entire writing process. Let’s look at four key concepts that help writers...
Are you teaching the truth about paragraphs? Probably not. The truth is not what you think it is. Much of what you have learned about paragraphs is simply not true. In 1866, Alexander Bain created a list of six paragraph rules that became the foundation of modern...
When you teach your students how to write paragraphs, what exactly are you teaching them? In short, paragraph instruction involves three basic paragraph concepts: 1) Unity, 2) Coherence, and 3) Emphasis. These three concepts are the three traits of paragraphs. All of...
When you teach multi-paragraph writing effectively, your students begin to write in an organized and natural multi-paragraph form in all of their daily writing across the curriculum. Furthermore, when it’s time for a writing assessment, your students easily address...
What your students write about is one of the most important decisions you make in teaching writing. To a large degree, it defines (1) what you teach about writing, and (2) how you teach writing. Put simply, we can’t leave what our students write about to chance. By...
Have you ever glanced at the paragraphing on a piece of student writing and had a gut reaction? How accurate was your gut reaction? My guess is that your gut reaction was surprisingly accurate. I did not say perfectly accurate or even accurate, just surprisingly...
What is a paragraph? You must be able to answer that question for yourself to teach paragraph and multi-paragraph writing effectively. Well, congratulations! You are about to enter a rare and elite club of teachers who truly understand paragraphs. We are going to...
The fastest, most effective way to teach students clear and organized multi-paragraph writing… Guaranteed!