This document provides instruction on developing ideas for writing paragraphs. It discusses brainstorming ideas, crafting an effective topic sentence to guide the paragraph, using supporting sentences to explain and expand on the topic sentence, and concluding the paragraph with a sentence that restates or predicts based on the main idea. Examples are given for different types of topic, supporting and concluding sentences. Students are assigned to brainstorm ideas on a given topic, write a paragraph using an appropriate topic sentence, and complete exercises on pronouns and punctuation from the textbook and online.

1. Composition I Laura Gang Week 2

2. Developing Ideas for Writing a Paragraph1. Brainstormingquickly writing down all the thoughts that come into your head.

3. It doesn’t matter if the first ideas are good or bad

4. a good writer thinks before he writes.

5. not linear, consecutive; rather messy

6. ideas are associatedLet’s brainstorm!How weather affects people

7. Developing Ideas for Writing a Paragraph2. The Topic Sentence Control or guide the whole paragraph.

8. It is NOT a general fact.

9. It is specific.

10. Is is NOT TOO specific.

11. It often has controlling ideas.Let’s practice!!! Controlling ideas pg. 37The best season for kids is winter.Soccer is the world’s most popular sports.People from many different cultures live in Los Angeles.Many language students prefer bilingual dictionaries to monolingual dictionaries.The SAT contains two distinct sections that deal with two different skills.The shocking crash of 747 jumbo jet off the coast of New York has baffled investigators.Crossword puzzles are not only educational but also addictive.

12. Let’s practice!!!Topic sentences pg. 40Flowers are beautiful.Cats are nice.Paris is the capital of France.The English alphabet has twenty-six letters.It costs forty cents to mail a first-class letter from the United States to Canada.Tennis is an enjoyable sport.

13. Language Focus: Capitalization and PunctuationCapitalizationAlways capitalize the first word of a sentence.

14. Always capitalize the word I

15. Capitalize proper nouns, specific names of people, places or things.

16. Capitalize titles’ first letter, content words (words with meaning) and DO NOT capitalize small words (function) End MarksPeriods (.) Used at the end of declarative sentences.

17. Question marks (?) Used at the end of a question.

18. Exclamation points (!) Used a the end of an exclamation.HomeworkChoose one of the general topics below. 2. Brainstorm your ideas on a separate paper.3. Circle the ideas that you think are better to include in a paragraph.4. Write a paragraph using the brainstorming you did and an appropriate topic sentence.5. Be ready to share your writing.ON LINE HOMEWORK> http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/grammar/capitalization.htmhttp://owl.english.purdue.edu/exercises/3/16/14/

19. Supporting and Concluding SentencesLike a good foundation of a house,supporting sentences need to hold theparagraph together. The concludingsentence will close the deal.

20. Supporting SentencesSupporting sentences should:Explain and support the topic

21. Answer the main wh questions (who, what, where, when, why, how)