Paragraph Unity in Writing English Essays

Exercises for learners of English academic writing

Presenter:

Eric Gondree

Overview

Introduction: Do you teach a writing process?

• What is Paragraph Unity
• Why use Paragraph Unity Exercises?
• First step
• Second step
• Third step
• Fourth step
• Fifth step
• Sixth step
• Seventh step
• Eighth step
• Final step
• Conclusion

My Academic Writing Background:

• 2007-9: Taught Academic Writing for English learners at State University New York at Buffalo (New York)

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• 2010 – 2014: Taught Academic Writing for English learners at Konan University (Kobe, Japan)

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• 2015 – 2020: Taught Academic Writing for English learners at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies (Nagoya, Japan)

Do you teach a writing process?

• Please discuss this question for 45 seconds.

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The writing process I use:�

It helps students plan and

write an organized paper.

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Featured in many writing

textbooks:

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Evergreen (Fawcett, 2013)

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Writing Academic English

(Oshima & Hogue, 2006)

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Blueprints (Folse, et al 2003)

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Paragraph unity exercises

are for after the first draft

is written, in the “Revising”

stage of the writing process.

What is Paragraph Unity?

• All supporting sentences match the paragraph’s controlling idea.

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• This requires students to have learned:
• What’s a controlling idea? Where is it?
• How to find a topic sentence?
• What’s a supporting sentence?

Why use Paragraph Unity Exercises?

• Students must pay attention to & think about writing mistakes
• Students must judge their own writing
• Students must be more autonomous learners
• Students encouraged to see self-editing as a skill for real life-writing situations
• (Whitlock, 1984; Zamel, 1987).

First Step:

• Review topic sentences, which contain:
• Topic
• Controlling idea
• Have students find the controlling ideas:

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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

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• Example: “Apples are good for three reasons.”

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

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 also be made into juice.
• Among them, add some irrelevant sentences.

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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 also be made into juice.
• Among them, add some irrelevant sentences.
• Blueberries are more expensive.
• Monkeys are funny.
• There’s no hot water in my hotel.

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Fourth Step:

• Ask students to find the controlling idea:

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• 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.

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Emphasize: Every sentence needs to match this idea.

Fifth Step:

• Go through each sentence, asking if it matches:

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• 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.

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Highlight or mark them accordingly

Sixth Step:

• Cross out the irrelevant sentences:

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• 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.

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Are there any remaining problems?

Seventh Step:

• Make edits to further improve the paragraph:

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• 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.

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Examples:

Three reasons: Consolidate a few sentences?

Maybe change some wording?

Eighth Step:

• Read the edited paragraph:

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• 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.

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Now we have a unified paragraph!

Final Step:

• Work with a partner, edit sample paragraphs:

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By the end…

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

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• The next time they have a writing assignment, you can start including a grading rubric that refers to paragraph unity.

Thank you for joining!

Questions? Comments?

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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.

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

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

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

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

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