Elaboration of Body Paragraphs

A How to and Strategies

11/01/07

What should a body paragraph contain?

•          Evidence supporting your thesis

•          Topic sentence

•          Concluding transition sentence

•          Back-up sentence – sentences to support or further illustrate the topic sentence

•          Specific examples

•          Setting up context

•          Explanatory sentences that give clarity to examples

What is elaboration?

•          Developing ideas

•          Adding meat to a paragraph

•          Making thoughts and understanding clear to a reader

•          Demonstrating you read and thought about the material

How do I find more information to include in my body paragraphs?

•          Finding supporting evidence specifically from the text

•          Quotations from the text or paraphrased text

•          Clarifying your focus of each body paragraph

Why should I use quotes?

•          They demonstrate you read the text closely.

•          They serve as concrete evidence to support a generalization.

•          The provide a deeper level of detail and understanding.

How do I include quotations into my body paragraphs?

•          S-C-C-C: Set it (the quote) up, give the citation (the quote), commentary, commentary.

–        Set it up :  Set up the context that the quote is from, so that the reader knows when and where the quote is from and who is doing the speaking/writing.

–        Citation: Write the quote out, in quotation marks and in-text citation.

•          Commentary:  Explain how the quote supports your topic/thesis. (Commenting on the quote.)

•          Commentary:  further commenting on the quote

A S-C-C Example

Leo is your typical high school guy; he goes with the flow and blends in.  That is until he met Stargirl.  Along with everyone else, he did not know what to make of her.  Eventually he gets to know her well, getting caught between what he thinks of her, what everyone else thinks of her, and what people think of Leo.  Leo is a good guy at heart, but he is not able to see past his fear of not fitting in.  This is shown when Stargirl puts up a huge sign saying “Stargirl loves Leo.”  “My first impulse was to drag the Spanish teacher to the window and say, ‘Look!  She loves me!’  My second impulse was to run outside and rip the sign away.” (page #)  Leo is struggling with how torn he feels.

Adding other types of specific evidence from the story

•          Description

•          Narration

•          Anything that is a direct quote, though needs to be quoted and cited.

Next Steps

•          Now that you have this direction I want you to focus on revising your introduction and body paragraphs today during class and tonight.

•          If you do not have a thumb drive, please get one so that you can move from school computers to home computers.