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Developing The Essay
Showing vs. telling
| Guide to writing introductions
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Writing>How to improve your writing>Paragraph Development |
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Paragraph Development Most paragraphs begin with a topic sentence which is a broad statement of the main idea -- a generalization. The rest of the paragraph develops the main idea by using specific statements. What's the difference between a general and a specific statement? A general statement carries few details; it pulls many things together into only a few words. A specific statement names more details and uses as many words as necessary. Thus, the differences between general and specific statements is actually a difference in degree of specificity. Compare the following statements as to degree of generality. 1. Martha Li is a teacher. 2. She teaches English at the community college level. 3. Ms. Li specializes in teaching English literature. 4. This semester she is teaching a Shakespeare course to second year college students.. ____________________ 1. I like novels. 2. I like detective novels. 3. I like Rex Stout's detective novels about Nero Wolfe. |
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