Template for a paragraph!
This structure will work for most papers, even if you are not quoting an outside source. If you are using source material, see How to use quotations for more tips!
1. Topic sentence—expresses the main idea of the paragraph. Avoid stating a simple fact here (a fact is not an idea), or starting a paragraph with a quotation. Think of the topic sentence as the “lid on the box.”
Example: The main hunger hormone—gherlin—might be subject to what we think we know about a food, in the same way that a placebo can sometimes cure a sick person.
2. Support and development—tell us more about the idea expressed in the topic sentence, and why it is a persuasive idea. You might use a quotation here, or just a fact, or neither, but this sentence builds on the topic sentence.
Example: Alia Crum is a clinical psychological who spent years researching the placebo effect, and she has learned that a person’s gherlin level after eating can be affected by what we think about what we eat.
3. More support and development—if you didn’t use a quotation or a fact in the second sentence, you probably need one here.
Example: In an experiment involving vanilla milkshakes, Crum found that the “very simple science: calories in, calories out” is not so simple after all.
4. More support and development, possibly some explanation.
Example: The people in Crum’s experiment who thought they had drunk a high calorie milkshake produced three times less gherlin than those who thought they’d had a low-calorie, no-sugar drink.
5. Concluding idea—not just another fact here, and certainly not a repetition of anything you’ve said before, but an idea that really wraps up the paragraph and leads to the next. And don’t quote anywhere in your last sentence! Quotations are support for your ideas, and not the ideas themselves. And you should get the first and last word in your paragraphs and in your paper.
Example: In other words, the study participants influenced their own physiology by believing they were satiated (or that they weren’t), a finding which might have real applications in the struggle against overeating and obesity.
Final paragraph:
The main hunger hormone—gherlin—might be subject to what we think we know about a food, in the same way that a placebo can sometimes cure a sick person. Alia Crum is a clinical psychological who spent years researching the placebo effect, and she has learned that a person’s gherlin level after eating can be affected by what we think about what we eat. In an experiment involving vanilla milkshakes, Crum found that the “very simple science: calories in, calories out” is not so simple after all (Spiegel). The people in Crum’s experiment who thought they had drunk a high calorie milkshake produced three times less gherlin than those who thought they’d had a low-calorie, no-sugar drink. In other words, the study participants influenced their own physiology by believing they were satiated (or that they weren’t), a finding which might have real applications in the struggle against overeating and obesity.
Source:
Spiegel, Alix. "Mind Over Milkshake: How Your Thoughts Fool Your Stomach." Morning Edition. NPR.
WUGA, Athens, GA, 14 Apr. 2014. Radio.
This structure will work for most papers, even if you are not quoting an outside source. If you are using source material, see How to use quotations for more tips!
1. Topic sentence—expresses the main idea of the paragraph. Avoid stating a simple fact here (a fact is not an idea), or starting a paragraph with a quotation. Think of the topic sentence as the “lid on the box.”
Example: The main hunger hormone—gherlin—might be subject to what we think we know about a food, in the same way that a placebo can sometimes cure a sick person.
2. Support and development—tell us more about the idea expressed in the topic sentence, and why it is a persuasive idea. You might use a quotation here, or just a fact, or neither, but this sentence builds on the topic sentence.
Example: Alia Crum is a clinical psychological who spent years researching the placebo effect, and she has learned that a person’s gherlin level after eating can be affected by what we think about what we eat.
3. More support and development—if you didn’t use a quotation or a fact in the second sentence, you probably need one here.
Example: In an experiment involving vanilla milkshakes, Crum found that the “very simple science: calories in, calories out” is not so simple after all.
4. More support and development, possibly some explanation.
Example: The people in Crum’s experiment who thought they had drunk a high calorie milkshake produced three times less gherlin than those who thought they’d had a low-calorie, no-sugar drink.
5. Concluding idea—not just another fact here, and certainly not a repetition of anything you’ve said before, but an idea that really wraps up the paragraph and leads to the next. And don’t quote anywhere in your last sentence! Quotations are support for your ideas, and not the ideas themselves. And you should get the first and last word in your paragraphs and in your paper.
Example: In other words, the study participants influenced their own physiology by believing they were satiated (or that they weren’t), a finding which might have real applications in the struggle against overeating and obesity.
Final paragraph:
The main hunger hormone—gherlin—might be subject to what we think we know about a food, in the same way that a placebo can sometimes cure a sick person. Alia Crum is a clinical psychological who spent years researching the placebo effect, and she has learned that a person’s gherlin level after eating can be affected by what we think about what we eat. In an experiment involving vanilla milkshakes, Crum found that the “very simple science: calories in, calories out” is not so simple after all (Spiegel). The people in Crum’s experiment who thought they had drunk a high calorie milkshake produced three times less gherlin than those who thought they’d had a low-calorie, no-sugar drink. In other words, the study participants influenced their own physiology by believing they were satiated (or that they weren’t), a finding which might have real applications in the struggle against overeating and obesity.
Source:
Spiegel, Alix. "Mind Over Milkshake: How Your Thoughts Fool Your Stomach." Morning Edition. NPR.
WUGA, Athens, GA, 14 Apr. 2014. Radio.