writng topic: rules for writers chapter 4

Chapter 4 is about building effective paragraphs.  Each paragraph helps build support for your thesis.  Paragraphs should always focus on a main idea, and if the subject goes off it could confuse your readers.  In the beginning of most paragraphs is a topic sentence that introduces the main point of the paragraph. The sentences to follow should support the topic sentence, at times adjusting the topic sentence may be needed. In the end, each paragraph should flow with one another by using transitional sentences.


This chapter was very helpful but at the same time made it very hard to even write the summary of the all the main points.  I would write a sentence but then hit my backspace button because it did not flow, and I felt like my ideas were all jumbled up. I still feel that way, but I would be here all night trying to write one paragraph.  When I wrote the first essay for this class, each of my paragraphs were mixed with too many ideas. Now I truly understand why a writer should form an outline before writing an essay.