People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria

Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

National Higher School of Advanced Technologies

2ND YEAR CLASS

PhD F. A. Mansour
Academic Year 2023/2024
 Lecture 6:
Writing a topic sentence,
supporting sentences, and
concluding sentence
(Suite)
Unit 1: Writing a scientific report (oral expression)

06/11/2023
Contents

What is paragraph unity?

Planning and constructing a unified

paragraph

How much support is enough

 What is paragraph unity?
❑ In the previous lecture we learned what is a general-to-
specific expository paragraph is and how to begin writing it.

❑ In this lecture we will learn how to put a paragraph together

so that it will be unified.

❑ We learned that a general-to-specific paragraph begins with a

topic sentence that establishes the topic and convoys a
controlling idea, the idea that is to be explained in the
paragraph. The statement of the controlling idea in the topic
sentence focuses the paragraph on one direction of the topic
❑ The topic sentence has a special relationship to the other sentences
in the paragraph. It is to contract that you as writer established with
your reader.

❑ To fulfil the contract and satisfy the reader that your topic sentence
is valid, you must see to it that every sentence of the paragraph
supports the controlling idea expressed in the topic sentence.

❑ If any does not, your paragraph will not be unified and will not
communicate effectively.

❑ In the other hand, if each sentence of the paragraph provides direct

or indirect support for the controlling idea, your paragraph will be
unified.
❑ Every expository paragraph, no matter how short or how
long, must be effective.
❑ An important point must be made here: not all sentences that
relate in some way to the topic of the paragraph necessarily
help to unify the paragraph.
❑ A sentence may be related to the topic of the paragraph and
provide information that is accurate and interesting, but a
sentence that doesn’t develop or support the controlling idea
of the paragraph will destroy the paragraph’s unity.
❑ To understand the importance of unity, examine the following
paragraph, which is NOT unified:
 (1) Pilots are the primary cause of many aircraft accidents. (2) Ignoring their
responsibilities, many pilots fail to perform their duties efficiently, and tragedy has too often
been the needless result. (3) History records that many fatal accidents have occurred, for
example, because pilots failed to listen to the advice of air traffic controllers who were in the
position to warn them about impending disasters. (4) To become an air traffic controller, one
must be extremely intelligent. (5) Sometimes pilots are overtired, and they neglect to take
the precautions necessary to avoid accidents. (6) They may even be taking drugs which slow
down their physical reactions. (7) As we all know, statistics indicate that many college
students abuse drugs, and these students should realise that if they continue to use drugs
they will never enter career such as aviation. (8) Sometimes accidents occur through a
malfunction in the plan’s equipment. (9) A door may open during a flight, or a tire may
blow out as the plan takes off. (10) Pilots, of course, are not responsible for accidents such
these. (11) The next time you take a commercial flight, you should be sure to ask yourself the
following questions: Does the pilot look happy and healthy? What are the weather conditions
outside? Do there seem to be any cracks in the wings or tail of the plan?
❑ While all of the sentences of the paragraph relate at least in some
way to the topic “aircraft accident,” the paragraph is not unified
because not every sentence support the controlling idea that
“pilots are primary cause of many aircraft accidents.”

❑ If we look at each sentence in this paragraph individually, we find

that the following sentences don’t belong because they do not
lend support to the controlling idea:

(4) To become an air traffic controller, one must be extremely intelligent.

(7) As we all know, statistics indicate that many college students abuse
drugs, and these students should realize that if they continue to use drugs
they will never enter career such as aviation.
 (8) Sometimes accidents occur through a malfunction in the plan’s
equipment.
(9) A door may open during a flight, or a tire may blow out as the plan
takes off.
(10) Pilots, of course, are not responsible for accidents such these.
(11) The next time you take a commercial flight, you should be sure to
ask yourself the following questions: Does the pilot look happy and healthy?
What are the weather conditions outside? Do there seem to be any cracks in
the wings or tail of the plan?
❑ These sentences detract from the unity of the paragraph.

❑ With each sentence we wonder what the writer is saying and

why; we may even stop reading as we lose track of the idea
we thought we were following.

❑ The other sentences of the paragraph do support the

controlling idea.

❑ If the writer had included only those sentences, the result

would have been a more compact and unified paragraph, as
we can see by reading through the following list:
 (1) Pilots are the primary cause of many aircraft accidents.
(2) Ignoring their responsibilities, many pilots fail to perform their
duties efficiently, and tragedy has too often been the needless result.
(3) History records that many fatal accidents have occurred, for
example, because pilots failed to listen to the advice of air traffic
controllers who were in the position to warn them about impending
disasters.
(5) Sometimes pilots are overtired, and they neglect to take the
precautions necessary to avoid accidents.
(6) They may even be taking drugs which slow down their physical
reactions.
 (1) Pilots are the primary cause of many aircraft accidents. (2)
Ignoring their responsibilities, many pilots fail to perform their duties
efficiently, and tragedy has too often been the needless result. (3)
History records that many fatal accidents have occurred, for example,
because pilots failed to listen to the advice of air traffic controllers who
were in the position to warn them about impending disasters. (5)
Sometimes pilots are overtired, and they neglect to take the precautions
necessary to avoid accidents. (6) They may even be taking drugs which
slow down their physical reactions.
Planning and constructing
a unified paragraph
❑ We have seen that paragraph unity can be sometimes
improved by eliminating from completed paragraphs those
sentences that don’t develop the controlling idea.

❑ However, we cannot rely on this method alone to achieve

paragraph unity.

❑ Most writer agree that the best way to achieve unity is to plan
their work carefully.
Preliminary steps
❑ Begin this process with the following important steps.

1. Select a topic and a controlling idea and write a topic

sentence in which they are expressed.

2. Jot down the facts and ideas that you think might support
your controlling idea. Note: For this initial list, you may
simply write down a word or phrase for each thought that
comes to mind. Don’t hesitate to include all or most of what
occurs to you; at this point you are accumulating material
that you will sort through and examine at a later stage.
3. Review your list of preliminary facts and ideas and ask yourself whether
your controlling idea is a good one. You need not examine each item in
your list closely at this point. Simply scan the list to get a sense of whether
or not you have enough material to explain your controlling idea
effectively. If you are uncertain, you need to reexamine your topic sentence.
You may have selected a controlling idea that simply isn’t explainable
because it isn’t valid or is either too broad or too specific for sensible
development. On the other hand, it may be that you don’t know enough
about your topic to support your controlling idea and that you need to
learn more, either by searching through your own experiences or by doing
further research. If you find that you have problems with your controlling
idea, now is time to catch and correct them. You cannot write an effective
paragraph if your controlling idea is difficult or impossible to explain
❑ Now, let’s consider how this process works. Suppose that your
topic is “The city of Algiers,” and that you have decided on
the controlling idea expressed in the following topic sentence:

The city of Algiers has many exciting places for tourists to visit

❑ The controlling idea in this sentence is signaled by the phrase

many exciting places for tourists to visit

❑ The next step is to jot down a list of facts or ideas that you
think could be used to develop or support or your controlling
ideas. Writers refer to this process of gathering of gathering
information as “brainstorming.”
❑ In completing this stage in the writing process, you might find
it helpful to ask of your controlling ideas the same questions
that you used to focus your topic (who?, what?, when?, why?,
where?).

❑ In answering these questions, you would be likely to form a

preliminary list that may look something like this:
Botanical Garden Martyrs’ Memorial Kasbah
“Jardin d’Essai”
The Basilica Ketchaoua Mosque The City Centre
“Notre Dame d’Afrique”

The Basilica Algiers International Nelson Mandela Stadium

“Sacré Coeur” Port
The Amusement Parks Promenade of the Bouchaoui Forest
Sablettes
Algiers Subway Bardo Museum The Zoo
The Great Mosque St Raphael Balcony Fine Art Museum
“Djamaa Al-Djazair”
The National Museum of The National Museum of Algiers Tramway
the ANP Al-Mujahid
Algiers Stock Exchange Bank of Algeria The National Theatre
Al-Djazair Hotel Turkish Fort Tamenfoust Qasr Erries (Bastion 23)

Grande-Poste The city hall building 5 July Sport Arena

Opera House The National Library Ibn Khaldoun Movie Theater
❑ In looking back over the information and data that we have been
listed as possible support for the controlling idea, we can see that
there are many such places mentioned.

❑ In fact, so many places are mentioned that if you were organising

this paragraph, you would have far more data and information at
your disposal than you could use. This indeed a good sign.

❑ Having thus gathered more than enough information to write an

explanatory paragraph about your controlling idea, you can now
proceed to the next stage of organising your paragraph with a
reasonable amount of assurance that you can develop or support
your controlling idea effectively.
Primary supports
❑ Once you have completed the three preliminary steps, you are
ready to begin piecing your paragraph together.

❑ Your first task is to reexamine carefully your list of supporting

information and to identify those items that are likely to
provide the most effective support for your controlling idea.

❑ Once you have identified those items, you should create

sentences from them that can be used in your paragraph as
major supporting statements for the controlling idea in your
topic sentence.
❑ Consider these sentences primary supports because within the
paragraph they function as the primary evidence that the writer
provides in support of the validity of the topic sentence.

❑ Keep the following two guidelines in mind as you begin to select,

create, and write primary supports for your paragraph:

1. Limit your selection to items that are most likely to explain to

your reader what you are trying to say in your controlling idea.

2. Choose items that will generate sentences that can function

approximately at the second level of generality in your
paragraph.
❑ In deciding which ideas to use, you may find it useful to evaluate
your information in terms of the now familiar questions: who?,
what?, when?, where?, and why?.

❑ Where, for instance, in Algiers should all tourists make it a point to

visit?

❑ What about these places makes them so important?

❑ Why do you feel that these places stand out as more significant than
other places on your list?

❑ As you ask yourself these questions, you will begin to see

differences in the value of the information you have gathered.

❑ Some of the items will probably begin to appear inappropriate.