Good essays contain both. topic sentences reveal the main point of a paragraph. They show the relationship of each paragraph to the essay's thesis, telegraph the point of a paragraph, and tell your reader what to expect in the paragraph that follows. Topic sentences also establish their relevance right away, making clear why the points they're making are important to the essay's main ideas. As their name suggests, prepare the reader for a change in the argument's direction.

They show how far the essay's argument has progressed vis ˆ vis the claims of the thesis. They are neither the first thing a writer needs to address thesis and the broad strokes of an essay's structure are nor are they the last that's when you attend to sentence level editing and polishing. Topic sentences and signposts deliver an essay's structure and meaning to a reader, so they are useful diagnostic tools to the writer they let you know if your thesis is arguable and essential guides to the reader forms of topic sentences sometimes topic sentences are actually two or even three sentences long. If the first makes a claim, the second might reflect on that claim, explaining it further. Think of these sentences as asking and answering two critical questions: how does the phenomenon you're discussing operate? why does it operate as it does? there's no set formula for writing a topic sentence. complex sentences. topic sentences at the beginning of a paragraph frequently combine with a transition from the previous paragraph.

This might be done by writing a sentence that contains both subordinate and independent clauses, as in the example below. Although young woman with a water pitcher depicts an unknown, middle class woman at an ordinary task, the image is more than realistic the painter vermeer has imposed his own order upon it to strengthen it. This sentence employs a useful principle of transitions: always move from old to new information. the subordinate clause from although to task recaps information from previous paragraphs the independent clauses starting with the image and the painter introduce the new information a claim about how the image works more than ôrealistic' and why it works as it does vermeer strengthens the image by imposing order . questions. questions, sometimes in pairs, also make good topic sentences and signposts. consider the following: does the promise of stability justify this unchanging hierarchy? we may fairly assume that the paragraph or section that follows will answer the question. bridge sentences. like questions, bridge sentences the term is john trimble's make an excellent substitute for more formal topic sentences.

Bridge sentences indicate both what came before and what comes next they bridge paragraphs without the formal trappings of multiple clauses: but there is a clue to this puzzle. pivots. topic sentences don't always appear at the beginning of a paragraph. When they come in the middle, they indicate that the paragraph will change direction, or pivot. This strategy is particularly useful for dealing with counter evidence: a paragraph starts out conceding a point or stating a fact psychologist sharon hymer uses the term ônarcissistic friendship' to describe the early stage of a friendship like the one between celie and shug after following up on this initial statement with evidence, it then reverses direction and establishes a claim yet. This narcissistic stage of celie and shug's relationship is merely a transitory one. The pivot always needs a signal, a word like but, yet, or however, or a longer phrase or sentence that indicates an about face. They inform a reader that the essay is taking a turn in its argument: delving into a related topic such as a counter argument, stepping up its claims with a complication, or pausing to give essential historical or scholarly background.

Because they reveal the architecture of the essay itself, signposts remind readers of what the essay's stakes are: what it's about, and why it's being written. Signposting can be accomplished in a sentence or two at the beginning of a paragraph or in whole paragraphs that serve as transitions between one part of the argument and the next. The following example comes from an essay examining how a painting by monet, the gare saint lazare: arrival of a train, challenges zola's declarations about impressionist art. The student writer wonders whether monet's impressionism is really as devoted to avoiding ideas in favor of direct sense impressions as zola's claims would seem to suggest.

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This is the start of the essay's third section: it is evident in this painting that monet found his gare saint lazare motif fascinating at the most fundamental level of the play of light as well as the loftiest level of social relevance. arrival of a train explores both extremes of expression. At the fundamental extreme, monet satisfies the impressionist objective of capturing the full spectrum effects of light on a scene. The writer signposts this section in the first sentence, reminding readers of the stakes of the essay itself with the simultaneous references to sense impression play of light and intellectual content social relevance . The second sentence follows up on this idea, while the third serves as a topic sentence for the paragraph. The paragraph after that starts off with a topic sentence about the cultural message of the painting, something that the signposting sentence predicts by not only reminding readers of the essay's stakes but also, and quite clearly, indicating what the section itself will contain.

copyright 20, elizabeth abrams, for the writing center at harvard university to change text size, use the browser commands. On the keyboard, press command + to zoom in, command to zoom out or command 0 to reset. On the keyboard, press command + mac or ctrl + windows to zoom in, command mac or ctrl windows to zoom out or command 0 mac or ctrl 0 windows to view actual size in the toolbar, select view > zoom > zoom in, reset or zoom out. On the keyboard, press command + mac or ctrl + windows to zoom in, command mac or ctrl windows to zoom out or command 0 mac or ctrl 0 windows to view actual size internet explorer in the toolbar, select options > zoom > zoom in, custom or zoom out. In english, is professor emeritus of rhetoric and english at armstrong atlantic state university and the author of two grammar and composition textbooks for college freshmen, writing exercises macmillan and passages: a writer 39 s guide st. 34 salva and the other boys made cows out of clay. the more cows you made, the richer you were. The boys would challenge each other to see who could make the most and best cows.

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Clarion, 2010 34 momma bought two bolts of cloth each year for winter and summer clothes. she made my school dresses, underslips, bloomers, handkerchiefs, bailey 39 s shirts, shorts, her aprons, house dresses and waists from the rolls shipped to stamps by sears and roebuck. Random house, 1969 34 you discover what it is like to be hungry. with bread and margarine in your belly, you go out and look into the shop windows. Everywhere there is food insulting you in huge, wasteful piles whole dead pigs, baskets of hot loaves, great yellow blocks of butter, strings of sausages, mountains of potatoes, vast gruyère cheeses like grindstones.