College Writing

College Writing Study Guide with a topic sentence . The topic sentence is the point your paragraph will prove, and it connects directly to the paper’s thesis. For example, when we were outlining the Five- Paragraph Essay about going to the pizza joint, the �irst supporting point was a topic sentence for the paragraph: “Pizza is one of our favorite foods.” The rest of that paragraph would be devoted to proving that point. Perhaps you would provide speci�ic occasions when you both enjoyed pizza, or perhaps you would write about the merits of pizza. What- ever you choose, every sentence in the paragraph would feed into the idea that pizza is one of our favorite foods. Just as every paragraph begins with a topic sentence, every paragraph ends with a summary sentence that connects the paragraph to the thesis. For example, after you spend an entire paragraph proving that pizza is one of our favorite foods, your last sentence would state, “Because we both like pizza so much, we should go to the new pizza joint for dinner tonight.” This paragraph-level organization both ensures that your reader understands the substance of your argument and ensures that the individ- ual paragraphs connect to the main idea of the paper. A helpful acronym for paragraph-level organization is PIE : • Point – the topic sentence or main point of the paragraph • Illustration – supporting details that can include facts, statistics, stories, quotations, descrip- tions, or anything else that you think would demonstrate the truth of your point. • Explanation – a direct connection between your illustration and the point; i.e. “the illustration proves the point because …” The illustration can come in many forms, and sometimes professional writers imply, rather than di- rectly state, the connection between the illustration and the thesis. Here are examples of the types of writing you can use to illustrate your point: • Narration tells a story that demonstrates your point. • Description gives details about a subject in such a way that it proves your argument. • Analogy compares two things; if the audience is willing to accept one thing and the compari- son, stands, then the audience should be able to accept your point. • Comparison and contrast is similar to analogies, but in this case, you’re �inding the speci�ic qualities of what you’re discussing. • Cause and effect develops a causal relationship between two things. • Classi�ication groups things according to a principle or quality. • Division divides things into their constituent parts. • De�inition characterizes your point based on a shared understanding.

©2020

Achieve

Page 22 of 42