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Overview

Introduction: Do you teach a writing process?

What is Paragraph Unity

What do learners need to know?

Why does it matter?
Eight steps

Student assessment

Conclusion

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My Academic Writing Background:

2007-9: Academic Writing at State University New York at Buffalo (NY, USA)

2010 – 2014: Academic Writing at Konan University (Kobe, Japan)

2015 – 2020: Academic Writing at Nagoya U. of Foreign Studies (Nagoya, Japan)

2026 - ? Academic Writing at Chukyo University (Nagoya, Japan)

Эрдэнэ Зуу хийд

1999!

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Q: Do you teach a writing process?

Please discuss this question for 30 seconds.

A writing process assumes

that your students already

have some writing skills…

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The writing process I use:�

It helps learners plan and

write an organized paper.

Featured in many writing

textbooks:

Evergreen (Fawcett, 2013)

Writing Academic English

(Oshima & Hogue, 2006)

Blueprints (Folse, et al 2003)

Paragraph unity exercises

are for after the first draft

is written, in the “Revising”

stage of the writing process.

Instinctively, many writing

learners only do this stage!

X X X

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What is Paragraph Unity?

All supporting sentences match the paragraph’s controlling idea.

Learners need to know:

What’s a controlling idea? Where is it?

What’s a topic sentence? Where is it?

What’s a supporting sentence?

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Why does Unity matter?

Writing learners should be able to…

…notice their writing mistakes
…judge their own writing
…be more self-reliant writers

…see self-editing as a skill for outside the classroom and throughout life.

(Whitlock, 1984; Zamel, 1987).

Also: Readers DO like good writing!

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First Step:

Review topic sentences, which contain:

Topic (general subject)
Controlling idea (author’s focus or opinion)

Have students find the controlling ideas:

Eight steps to Paragraph Unity:

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Second Step:

Get a simple topic sentence from a student

Write it on the board
Make it a humorously easy sentence

Example: “Apples are good for three reasons.”

Ask: What’s the topic? (Apples)
Ask: What’s the controlling idea? (they’re good for 3 reasons)

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Third Step:

Get a different supporting sentence from each student…

Apples are sweet.
These fruits are often a beautiful red color.
Apples are inexpensive and available in every market.
Apples can be made into juice.

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Third Step:

Get a different supporting sentence from each student… and write a paragraph:

Apples are sweet.
These fruits are often a beautiful red color.
Apples are inexpensive and available in every market.
Apples can be made into juice.

…Randomly add a few unrelated sentences.

Blueberries are more expensive.
Monkeys are funny.
There’s no hot water in my hotel.

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This is your paragraph:

Apples are good for three reasons. Apples are sweet. These fruits are often a beautiful red color. Apples are inexpensive and available in every market. Blueberries are more expensive. Monkeys are funny. Apples can be also be made into juice. There’s no hot water in my hotel. Therefore, apples are my favorite fruits.

Remember?

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Fourth Step:

Find the controlling idea…

Apples are good for three reasons. Apples are sweet. These fruits are often a beautiful red color. Apples are inexpensive and available in every market. Blueberries are more expensive. Monkeys are funny. Apples can be also be made into juice. There’s no hot water in my hotel. Therefore, apples are my favorite fruits.

…And match every other sentence with this idea.

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Fifth Step:

Read each sentence, asking if it matches:

Apples are good for three reasons. Apples are sweet. These fruits are often a beautiful red color. Apples are inexpensive and available in every market. Blueberries are more expensive. Monkeys are funny. Apples can be also be made into juice. There’s no hot water in my hotel. Therefore, apples are my favorite fruits.

Highlight or mark accordingly

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Sixth Step:

Cross out the irrelevant sentences:

Apples are good for three reasons. Apples are sweet. These fruits are often a beautiful red color. Apples are inexpensive and available in every market. Blueberries are more expensive. Monkeys are funny. Apples can be also be made into juice. There’s no hot water in my hotel. Therefore, apples are my favorite fruits.

Check: Are there remaining problems? (This requires some skill…)

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Seventh Step:

Make edits to further improve the paragraph:

Apples are good for three reasons. Apples are often sweet. These fruits and a beautiful red color. These fruits Apples are inexpensive and available in every market. Blueberries are more expensive. Monkeys are funny. Apples can be also be made into delicious juice. There’s no hot water in my hotel. Therefore, apples are my favorite fruits.

Examples:

Are there really three reasons? Or repeating nouns?

Maybe change some wording?

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Eighth Step:

Neatly re-write the edited paragraph:

Apples are good for three reasons. Apples are often sweet and a beautiful red color. These fruits are inexpensive and available in every market. Apples can be also be made into delicious juice. Therefore, apples are my favorite fruits.

Now we have a unified paragraph!

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Assessment:

Work with a partner, edit sample paragraphs:

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By the end…

Students will be able to self-edit a unified paragraph.

From their next writing assignment, you can start to include paragraph unity as part of their grade.

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Questions?

Do you think you can use this technique in your own writing class?

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Thank you for joining!

Comments?

This PPT available for download at: http://eric.gondree.com

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References:

Fawcett, S. (2014). Evergreen: A guide to writing with readings. Wadsworth.

Folse, K. S. (2003). Blueprints 1: Composition skills for academic writing. Houghton Mifflin.

Oshima, A., & Hogue, A. (2006). Writing academic English. Pearson Longman.

Peterson, J. & Hagen, S. (1999). Better Writing Through Editing. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.

Whitlock, R. (1984). Six writing exercises for helping students understand process. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii.

Zamel, V. (1987). Recent research on writing pedagogy. TESOL Quarterly 21 (4), 697 - 716.