Building the Paragraphs: Supporting Details

Building the Paragraphs: Supporting Details

Methods of Development

Developing Relationships between ideas

Patterns of Organisation

Types of Supporting Details

Developing Relationships between paragraphs

Types of Supporting Details

• Types of support might include reasons, facts, statistics, quotations, and examples.
• Are relevant and focused.
• Provide sufficent detail.
• At least 3 to 4 sentences per paragraph

Patterns of Organization

• Help your readers follow the ideas within your essay and your paragraphs.

• Ways to organise your main points:
• Most important information first (consider what you want readers to focus on first)
• Chronological order (the order in time that events take place)
• Compare and contrast (ideas are organized together because of their relationship to each other)

Methods of Development

• Help to develop the ideas within paragraphs.

• Ways to organise your supporting details:
• Cause and Effect (or Effect and Cause)
• Problem-Solution
• Chronology or Narrative
• Comparison and Contrast

Developing Relationships between Ideas

• How are the ideas tied to each other?
• The use of clear transitions between ideas - "connecting words"

• To introduce something new while connecting it to something old from an earlier point.

Connecting Words

To Show Similarity

To Show Contrast

To Exemplify

To Show Cause and Effect

To Show Additional Support

A Word of Caution

Transitions should be used when they feel natural and feel like the rightchoice.

Developing Relationships between Paragraphs

• Show your readers how the main ideas of your paragraphs relate to each other and also to your thesis.

• Use signposts.
• Use forward-looking sentences at the end of paragraphs.
• Use backward-looking sentences at the beginning of paragraphs.

The End

Thank you

Use Backward-Looking Sentences at the Beginning of Paragraphs

• Begin a paragraph by looking back.
• For example, maybe you just concluded a paragraph on the topic of trees’ ability to decrease soil erosion and you’re getting ready to talk about how they provide habitats for urban wildlife. Beginning the opening of a new paragraph with a backward-looking transition might look something like this: “While their benefits to soil and water conservation are great, the value that trees provide to our urban wildlife also cannot be overlooked.”

Use Forward-Looking Sentences at the End of Paragraphs

• Give your readers a hint about what’s coming next.
• For example, imagine that you’re writing an essay about the benefits of trees to the environment and you’ve just wrapped up a paragraph about how trees absorb pollutants and provide oxygen. You might conclude with a forward-looking sentence like this: “Trees benefits to local air quality are important, but surely they have more to offer to our communities than clean air.”

Use Signposts

• Words or phrases used to indicate that you are introducing a new concept, that you are summarizing an idea, or that you are concluding your thoughts.
• For examples, first, then, next, finally, in sum, and in conclusion.
• More creative ways, you might say, “The first problem with this practice is…” or you might say, “The next thing to consider is…” or you might say, “Some final thoughts about this topic are….”