3 First Year Series Writing Center University of North Florida Workshop Overview A successful paragraph introduces a clear TopicIssue that moves readers toward specific questions ID: 775301
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Slide1
Paragraph Level
The Mechanics of Style
3
First Year Series
Writing Center
University of North Florida
Slide2Workshop Overview
A
successful paragraph introduces
a clear
Topic/Issue…
that moves readers toward specific questions…
a
nd then it answers
them.
Writing that succeeds in this way is called “cohesive.” It hangs together nicely.
Slide3Guided Practice
What is good about this paragraph?
During
the first decade of “Just Do It,” Nike “increased its market share of the domestic sport-shoe business from 18 percent ($877 million) to 43 percent ($9.2 billion)” (COAR). “Just Do It” expanded Nike’s target audience from hardcore, competitive athletes to the general public by appealing to the “inner” athlete. The new appeal was that anyone and everyone could wear the merchandise and feel included. Everyone – from your average teenager making a fashion statement, to professional athletes putting in hours of work – could wear a pair of Nike athletic shoes and experience the associated benefits of doing so. The values of that “inner athlete”—determination, dedication, and mental toughness—added up to a Nike brand that finally forced Reebok out of a dominant market position.
Slide4Guided Practice
We start with an unread page.
The reader hasn’t decided to read your document yet.
The reader is thinking: “Is this even worth reading?”
Your Topic/Issue should get them to answer “yes.”
Slide5Guided Practice
Topic/Issue
During the first decade of “Just Do It,” Nike “increased its market share of the domestic sport-shoe business from 18 percent ($877 million) to 43 percent ($9.2 billion)” (COAR
).
Now what is the reader asking?
Slide6Guided Practice
Topic/Issue
During the first decade of “Just Do It,” Nike “increased its market share of the domestic sport-shoe business from 18 percent ($877 million) to 43 percent ($9.2 billion)” (COAR).
The reader is
asking:
“Why? How?”
Answer
:
“
Just Do It” expanded Nike’s target audience from hardcore, competitive athletes to the general public by appealing to the “
inner
athlete
.”
Slide7Guided Practice
“
Just Do It”
expanded Nike’s target audience from
hardcore, competitive
athletes to the general public by appealing to the “
inner
athlete
.”
The reader is
asking: “What’s that? Really
? Explain.”
Answer
:
The new appeal was that anyone and everyone could wear the merchandise and feel included. Everyone – from your average teenager making a fashion statement, to professional athletes putting in hours of work – could wear a pair of Nike athletic shoes and experience the associated benefits of doing so.
Slide8Guided Practice
The
new appeal was that anyone and everyone could wear the merchandise and feel included. Everyone – from your average teenager making a fashion statement, to professional athletes putting in hours of work – could wear a pair of Nike athletic shoes and experience the associated benefits of doing so.
The reader is
asking:
“So what?”
Answer:
The values of that “inner athlete”—determination, dedication, and mental toughness—added up to a Nike brand that finally forced Reebok out of a dominant market position.
Slide9Guided PRactice
Topic/Issue
During
the first decade of “Just Do It,” Nike “increased its market share of the domestic
sport-shoe business
from 18
percent
($877 million) to 43 percent ($9.2 billion)” (COAR).
“
Why? How
?”
“
Just Do It” expanded Nike’s target audience from hardcore, competitive athletes to the general public by
appealing
to
the
“inner” athlete.
“Really? Explain.”
The
new appeal was that anyone and everyone could wear the merchandise and feel included. Everyone –
from
your
average
teenager making a fashion statement, to professional athletes putting in hours of work
–
could wear a pair
of Nike
athletic shoes and experience the associated benefits of doing so.
“
So what
?”
The
values of that “inner athlete”—determination, dedication, and mental toughness—added up to a Nike
brand
that
finally
forced Reebok out of a dominant market position.
Slide10Guided Practice
Sometimes, your
topic/issue
isn’t obviously interesting.
From the start, your reader
is already thinking:
“So what
?”
In
the 1990s, slimming products containing Chinese herbs were sold in
Belgium
as “traditional herbal medicines
.”
Slide11Guided Practice
In
the 1990s, slimming products containing Chinese herbs were sold in Belgium as
“
traditional herbal medicines.”
“So what?” The
main herb used in making them was
Stephania
tetrandra
.
“So what?” In Chinese, the
name for
Stephania
is
very similar to the name for
Aristolochia
fangchi
.
“So what?”
Aristolochia
contains
aristolochic
acid.
“
And?
” This
acid causes endemic nephropathy with permanent kidney damage and end-stage
kidney failure. After
medical dangers were associated with the herbal supplements,
the
International Agency of Research on Cancer classified
Aristolochia
as a human
carcinogen
(Dietz, 588
).
“Oh.”
Slide12Independent Practice
Where does this paragraph answer the question “so what
?” Where
should the answer go?
Clark’s
practice of carefully mapping every fossil made it possible to follow the evolutionary development of various types through time. Beautiful sequences of antelopes, giraffes and elephants were obtained — new species evolving out of old ones and appearing in younger strata, then dying out as they were replaced by still others in still younger strata. In short, evolution was taking place before the eyes of the
Omo
surveyors—and it
could be timed. The finest examples of this process were in several lines of pigs which had been extremely common at
Omo
and had evolved rapidly. Unsnarling the pig story was turned over to paleontologist Basil Cooke. He produced family trees for pigs whose various types were so accurately dated that pigs themselves became measuring sticks that could be applied to finds of questionable age in other places that had similar pigs.
Slide13Independent Practice
Clark’s practice of carefully mapping every fossil made it possible to follow the evolutionary development of various types through time. Beautiful sequences of antelopes, giraffes and elephants were obtained — new species evolving out of old ones and appearing in younger strata, then dying out as they were replaced by still others in still younger strata.
In short, evolution was taking place before the eyes of the
Omo
surveyors—and it could be timed.
The finest examples of this process were in several lines of pigs which had been extremely common at
Omo
and had evolved rapidly. Unsnarling the pig story was turned over to paleontologist Basil Cooke. He produced family trees for pigs whose various types were so accurately dated that pigs themselves became measuring sticks that could be applied to finds of questionable age in other places that had similar pigs.
Slide14Independent Practice
Clark’s practice of carefully mapping every fossil made it possible to follow the evolutionary development of various types through time. Beautiful sequences of antelopes, giraffes and elephants were obtained — new species evolving out of old ones and appearing in younger strata, then dying out as they were replaced by still others in still younger strata.
The
finest examples of this process were in several lines of pigs which had been extremely common at
Omo
and had evolved rapidly. Unsnarling the pig story was turned over to paleontologist Basil Cooke. He produced family trees for pigs whose various types were so accurately dated that pigs themselves became measuring sticks that could be applied to finds of questionable age in other places that had similar pigs
.
In short, evolution was taking place before the eyes of the
Omo
surveyors—and it could be timed.
Slide15Artifact-Based Practice
How does your document build – and then answer – readers’ questions?
Slide16WorkshoP summary
Cohesion is a kind of thoughtfulness. If you are thinking wisely about your readers’ concerns and questions – and responding to them – your paragraphs will hang together nicely.