Spring Semester Begins

Welcome. This semester's class will be easier than last semester's class. Instead of writing long pieces, we will spend the first half of the semester on writing a good paragraph. Each week you will write one paragraph.

Here's the basic idea:

Choose a topic. It should be something you care about, and also something specific. If it's too general, like "the countries of the world", you will have a very long paragraph to write. "Japan is my favorite country" makes a much neater topic for a paragraph.

Brainstorm. Make some notes about the topic. Without caring about grammar or even complete sentences, write down whatever you think is important about that idea.

Choose a topic sentence that will tell the reader what you're talking about. It does not have to contain all the information you will give, of course. But every other sentence should relate to that topic sentence in some way. So make some kind of general statement that relates to all the other ideas you will present.

Write three or four "supporting sentences" which show what you mean by the topic sentence, or explain why it is true. These should usually be more specific than the topic sentence. Each one is just one part of the topic, whereas the topic sentence sort of covers the whole topic in a general way.

Write a concluding sentence that sums up the information you've given and tells us a little bit more. "SO WHAT?" your reader might ask. The concluding sentence answers that question. The concluding sentence is also a supporting sentence, but it goes beyond the topic sentence, the way a dog's tail extends beyond its body. It's the way you tell us how to think about what you have already written.

The topic sentence is very important. Every paragraph must have one. We will work on this next time.

Remember, when you have finished your paragraph, you can e-mail it to me for correction. This will save time in class. (If you don't get it to me by e-mail, it's still okay to bring it to class, and if you don't have time to do your homework, you can still come to class anyway.)