Paragraph assignment 8

The purpose of this assignment is to put the paragraph-writing skills we've been working on into the larger context of a complete essay.

Instead of your usual prewriting technique of choice:

Begin prewriting by raising a literal question (an interrogative sentence ending correctly in a question mark) setting up some worthy topic for a full essay arising from our discussion of "Talk Show Trash" (pp. 509-10 in Discovery). As with the examples we put on the board and discussed in class Monday, the question should be simple and direct, setting up the issue the essay will address in clear and straightforward fashion.

Then construct three or more topic sentences that answer the question squarely and directly, repeating the key words from the question itself in each answer (follow the models on the "paper proposal handout" I distributed on Monday).

Next, write a thesis statement that combines the major points from all of the topic sentences: follow the model of the first sample paper proposal on the paper proposal handout.

Finally, on a separate page, write a full body paragraph of at least 200 words with any one of your three or more topic sentences as the first sentence in the paragraph. Note that you must write only one body paragraph, not paragraphs for every topic sentence you came up with in the prewriting exercise (it's called a topic sentence outline).

Turn in the topic sentence outline and all drafts of the paragraph.