It is not easy
for English beginner to write a single paragraph. First thing, he/she needs to
know what he/she is going to write; he/she knows the detail information of it;
he/she knows paragraph content; he/she has enough vocabulary and adequate
knowledge of basic language rule. As an
easy beginning, here are some matters that we must pay attention to write a
paragraph:
1.
Choose a topic and main idea
that we are writing. Topic here means something that we are going to say often in
paragraph. Main idea is a phrase that contents the topic.
2.
Do listing by recalling and
collecting information that you are going to write about the topic, streaking through
less important points, then re-arranging only necessary points from the first
one to the least one.
3.
Write paragraph by paying
attention to topic sentence, supporting sentence (major and minor), and
concluding sentence. When major supporting sentence is to support topic
sentence, minor supporting sentence supports major supporting sentence.
4.
Review to check some possible
errors like grammatical error, misspelled words, repetitive words, ambiguous
meaning, punctuation and capitalization.
Activity 1
Let us analyze a
student named Lita who is building a paragraph about her new job. She lists what
she does and notes her activities in detail.
Hi Friends, my
name is Lita, and I am going to make a paragraph whose title is ‘my new job’. The
topic is my job desk. Here I display what I do in a table to make the process
of paragraph building more visible and understandable :
First thing that I need to do is
listing any ideas in my mind about it. I have 14 points as my basic thought
to describe my new job. They are:
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Second, I strikethrough some
items to be omitted. There are seven points omitted and seven points chosen.
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Third, I re-list the chosen
points, from the most to the least important.
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Salary
office hour
position
time management
doze
pray
filing some documents
emailing
meeting
lunch
free time
breakfast
over-time work
commuting
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office hour
position
filing some documents
emailing
meeting
over-time work
commuting
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1. Position
2. Office hour
3. Commuting
4. Filling some documents
5. Emailing
6. Meeting
7. Over-time work
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Forth, I decide which is going
to be major supporting and minor supporting sentence. I will add more ideas
to complete my thinking frame towards this paragraph building. I also need to
pay attention for the first sentence because it decides the thorough ideas of my paragraph. This is how I write
the paragraph.
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I just begin my new job in a
company located in Gatot Subroto. I work for a leasing company as an
administrative personnel. I have regular office hour from 8 am to 5 pm every
Monday to Saturday. I have break time from 12 pm to 1 pm. I often spend
one-hour break for lunch, doze and pray. I commute to work by train. I live
in Bogor. It is more than 30 kilometers from my house to office. That is why
train is the fastest transport for me. My job is to file some documents and
to answer email. I also attend meetings. I normally have meetings after 2 pm.
I can have three to seven meetings in a week.
I usually leave office after 7 pm. Even my office hour is until 5 pm,
my supervisor often orders me to do some unfinished filing job. When I work
over-time, I commonly arrive home after 9 pm or so. One thing I do for sure
after arriving home is sleeping, to prepare myself for another busy tomorrow.
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At last, I check for some
possible errors like grammatical error, misspelled words, repetitive words,
ambiguous meaning, punctuation and capitalization as last review for my
paragraph building.
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Activity 2
Let us analyze the contents of
Lita’s paragraph.
I just begin my new job in a company located in Gatot Subroto. I work for a leasing company as an administrative personnel. I have regular office hour from 8 am to 5 pm every Monday to Saturday. I have break time from 12 pm to
1 pm. I often spend one-hour break for lunch, doze and pray. I commute to work by train. I live in Bogor. It is more than 30 kilometers from
my house to office. That is why train is the fastest transport for me. My
job is to file some documents and to
answer email. I also attend meetings. I normally have meetings after
2 pm. I can have three to seven meetings in a week. I usually leave office after 7 pm. Even my
office hour is until 5 pm, my supervisor often orders me to do some unfinished
filing job. When I work over-time,
I commonly arrive home after 9 pm or so. Even it looks tiring, but I love my new job.
*Some
important points are underlined and colored for detail description:
1.
Lita has “I just begin my new
job in a company located in Gatot Subroto” as opening sentence or topic
sentence.
2.
She inserts her main points:
position, office hour, commuting, filling some documents, emailing, meeting and
over-time work in major supporting sentences. She writes them coherently in the
paragraph (the bolded words are main points of paragraph).
3.
Underlined sentence is major
supporting sentence. Highlighted sentence is minor supporting sentence.
4.
Color shows a unit of idea. The
following sentence after underlined sentence is minor supporting sentence
following its major.
5.
Lita develops major supporting
sentences with one or two minor supporting sentences. For example, she adds “I
have break time from 12 pm to 1 pm” and “I often spend one-hour break for
lunch, doze and pray” (as minor supporting sentences) to develop major
supporting sentence: “I have regular office hour from 8 am to 5 pm every Monday
to Saturday”.
6.
It is clearly seen that Lita develops
almost major supporting sentence
with, minimally, one minor supporting sentence.
7.
This shows that minor
supporting sentence is not always located after major supporting sentence.
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I usually
leave office after 7 pm. Even my office hour is until 5 pm, my supervisor often
orders me to do some unfinished filing job. When I work over-time, I commonly arrive home after 9 pm or so.
“I usually leave office
after 7 pm. Even my office hour is until 5 pm, my supervisor often orders me to
do some unfinished filing job” are minor supporting sentences of “When I work
over-time, I commonly arrive home after 9 pm or so“.
8.
Lita has “Even it looks tiring,
but I love my new job” as concluding sentence/closing sentence.
9.
It is also very possible for
Lita to write “One thing I do for sure after arriving home is and taking a bath
sleeping, so I can prepare myself for another busy tomorrow” as closing
sentence. Even this sentence does not conclude what she writes in her
paragraph, but the sentence is ok to close the paragraph. The classification of
this sentence is odd sentence. It is
‘odd’, but it is ok to insert.
Activity 3
Practise your paragraph building
by doing some steps just like what Lita does.
Decide a topic of your
paragraph: …
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Decide a title for it: …
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List any ideas in your mind
about it. They are:
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Strikethrough some items to be
omitted.
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Re-list the chosen points, from
the most to the least important.
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·
·
·
·
·
·
·
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·
·
·
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·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
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1.
Position
2. Office hour
3. Commuting
4. Filling some documents
5. Emailing
6. Meeting
7. Over-time work
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Decide which is going to be
major supporting and minor supporting sentence.
Add more ideas to complete my
thinking frame towards this paragraph building.
Pay attention for the first
sentence because it decides the thorough ideas of paragraph.
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Write your paragraph here:
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
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At last, check for some possible
errors like grammatical error, misspelled words, repetitive words, ambiguous
meaning, punctuation and capitalization as last review for your paragraph
building.
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Activity 4
After you write
a paragraph, notice the contents of paragraph by writing definition of:
Topic :
.....................................................................................................
Main idea :
.....................................................................................................
Topic sentence :
.....................................................................................................
Major supporting sentence : .....................................................................................................
Minor supporting sentence : .....................................................................................................
Concluding sentence :
.....................................................................................................
Odd sentence :
.....................................................................................................
