Writing Exercise 3

(If you're looking at this page before class begins, I'll explain in class what we're doing.)

This exercise is essentially the same as the last one: compose a topic sentence outline, as explained and illustrated in Writing Tip 2, addressing the topic prompt below. Make sure your central question uses key words from the most important sentence in the prompt (Writing Tip 1) and then make sure you repeat the key words from the central question in each topic sentence and the thesis.

Your outline should contain four separate sentences:

1. The central question.
2. Topic sentence 1.
3. Topic sentence 2.
4. Thesis statement, combining the points in topic sentences 1 and 2.

Topic prompt: Cell phones, or smart phones, more precisely, are clearly here to stay. But for all the convenience they offer in ready access to important information and instant communication with people across the globe, they present serious drawbacks in undermining our relationships with those closest to us and posing risks to our intellectual and mental well-being in a great many ways. In at least four well-developed paragraphs, discuss the most essential ways that cell phones are harmful to all of us who use them.