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Writing Topic Sentences

 

            Topic sentences are critical in keeping your paper focused on the ideas you are emphasizing in your support. They keep your reader’s attention and emphasize the organization of your thoughts. Topic sentences should correspond to major ideas presented in your outline. They frequently include transition phrases to orient the reader or link the new idea to preceding ones. In literary papers, topic sentences prevent essays from lapsing into plot summary. Examples:

 

From the outset of the novel, Bennett describes Heratica as a horrifying, despotic world, marked by atheism and deception.

 

Beginning in childhood, Wiley senses what it is to be moral, and that sense gives him confidence and power.

 

Writing Support Paragraphs

 

            Support paragraphs should follow the organization presented in the outline. They should contain original ideas related to the topic sentences and then supporting examples of those ideas. In literary papers, they should contain analysis, not plot summary.

            In research papers, support paragraphs should incorporate quotes, paraphrases, and summaries, and other support from primary and secondary sources. The controlling ideas of the paper, however, should be yours.  In literary papers, the writing should focus on your analysis, using critics’ ideas and primary source quotes as support. As a general rule, two-thirds of a support paragraph should consist of your own analysis and ideas. Beyond that, your paper will appear to be simply a collection of quotes and other people’s work.

 

Writing a Conclusion

 

            The conclusion of your paper should emphasize what has been proven or demonstrated in the writing.  It should emphasize the implications of what has been written, referring to major ideas and drawing from evidence in the paper as appropriate. The conclusion should not introduce new information which would require further explanation and clarification. The last line of the conclusion should sound emphatic and “final.” In literary analysis papers, the conclusion should include a final reference to the title and author of the work analyzed. Example:

 

                                Chronicle of a Traitor is Michelle Bennett’s testament to the dangers of authoritarian governments and the significance of individual morality.  By cataloging the horrors of life in Heratica, a world devoid of spiritual comfort where no one can be trusted, she cries out against potential tyranny in the modern world.  In Bennett’s view,     a life without faith in God and in each other is a life not fully human. When a government attempts to impose such conditions on its people, Bennett demands rebellion. Driven by his own beliefs, Ryan Wiley does rebel, proclaiming “the primacy of men over bureaucrats and despots, of truth over anti-truth, and of the individual conscience over all” (Hastings, Women Authors 257). Clearly, Wiley is Bennett’s hero, a faithful, honest man who demonstrates that resistance to injustice can make a human being noble.

 

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