Paragraphing

English 111

Paragraphing Exercise

A paragraph has to meet four requirements:

 1.  It must discuss one topic only (unity). 

2. It must say all the reader need to know about the topic (development). 

3.  It must exhibit an order that the reader recognizes and follows (order). 

4.  It must allow the reader to move easily and logically from one sentence to the next without feeling that there are gaps in the sequence of ideas (coherence).

 The following sentences are scrambled. Read the sentences. Choose the one sentence that states the main idea of the paragraph and make that the topic sentence of the paragraph. Place it at the beginning of the paragraph. Organize the supporting sentences for the topic sentence idea. Use transitions between sentences to clarify coherence between supporting sentences. You may have to eliminate some sentences in order to insure paragraph unity.

 1.  Because of their size and inefficient digestion, elephants require enormous amounts of food.

2.  For more than a thousand years, hunters have killed African elephants for their ivory tusks.

3.  Laws now forbid the killing of elephants for ivory.

4.  There may now be fewer than 1,300,000 elephants in Africa and fewer than 25,000 in Asia.

5.  Elephants are used today in Southern Asia as work animals.

6.  The elephant is an endangered species.

7.  A dwindling food supply is an even greater threat to the elephant than are ivory hunters.

8.  Before the invention of heavy machinery, elephants were the most powerful force available to humans for pushing and carrying objects.

9.  Humans are taking over more and more of the land in Africa and Asia, land once used by elephants for feeding.

10.  Today elephants are used to help clear forests and to do other heavy labor.

11.  The price of ivory today is extraordinary; a single pair of tusks may sell for more than $20,000.

12.  Elephants have been used in circuses for at least 2,000 years.

13. Some zoos regularly feature elephant rides.

14.  Poachers continue to kill elephants for their tusks.

15.  We may be able to see elephants in zoos, but will they survive in the wild?