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Schaffer Writing Model

Step 1: The Body Paragraph

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Directions

Divide a sheet of paper into 6 blocks and label the blocks as follows:

1. Topic Sentence

2. Concrete Detail

3. Commentary

4. Chunk

5. Concluding Sentence

6. Body Paragraph Outline

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Block 1 – Topic Sentence

  • 1st sentence of a body paragraph
  • Says what the paragraph will be about
  • general statement, not a specific detail
  • TS

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Block 2 – Concrete Detail

  • Fact, example, quotation, story, etc.
  • Can be proven or found
  • Often begins with “for example”
  • Additional concrete details need to be introduced with transitions
  • CD

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Examples of Concrete Details

  • For example, Mrs. Meeching is always wearing black.
  • Another example is that Mrs. Meeching is called “cold.”
  • Finally, even the sound of her name, Meeching, is unpleasant.
  • For example, in seventh grade I made a C in math.
  • Also, when we would play family games, my brothers would never let me keep score.
  • Worst of all, in college, I was put into a remedial algebra class that was made up of the football team and me.

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Block 3 - Commentary

  • Your analysis, opinion, or explanation of the concrete detail
  • Opinionated
  • “this shows that” / “this is important because”
  • Should take more than one sentence of commentary to explain
  • CM

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Examples of commentary

This shows that the author probably chose Mrs. Meeching’s name in order to give us a clue about her creepiness. Her name is used as foreshadowing because it makes us realize that she is scary even before she actually does anything.

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Block 4 - Chunk

  • CD plus CM together
  • A chunk must be kept together and completed before moving on to a new idea
  • The ratio of a well-written chunk is at least 2:1 (2 CM for every 1 CD)

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Block 5: Concluding Sentence

  • Sums up the entire paragraph
  • Has the same idea as the topic sentence but in different words
  • A general statement, not a concrete detail
  • CS

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Basic Body Paragraph Outline

  • TS
  • CD
  • CM
  • CM
  • CS

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Beyond the Basics –Paragraph Outline

  • TS
  • CD 1
  • CM 1A
  • CM 1B
  • CD 2
  • CM 2A
  • CM 2B
  • CD 3
  • CM 3A
  • CM 3B
  • CS

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REMEMBER

  • EXTRA SENTENCES ARE OKAY!
  • If it takes you more than one sentence to explain your concrete detail, that’s fine. Just don’t forget that you should still have multiple sentences of commentary.
  • If it takes you extra commentary to explain your details, fine!
  • If you need examples, ask your teacher!