section 1

An effective topic sentence should have the following requirements:
• 1) It should be a complete statement. • 2) It should be general. • 3) It should be clear and definite.
(1)Gold, a precious metal, is prized for two important characteristics. (2)First all, gold has a lustrous beauty that is resistant to corrosion. (3)Therefore, it is suitable for jewelry, coins, and ornamental purposes. (4)Gold never needs to be polished and will remain beautiful forever. (5)For example, a Macedonian coin remains as untarnished today as the day it was minted twenty-three centuries ago. (6)Another important characteristic of gold is its usefulness to industry and science. (7)For many years, it has been used in hundreds of industrial applications. (8)The most recent use of gold is in astronauts suits. (9)Astronauts wear gold-plated heat shields for protection outside the spaceship. (10)In conclusion, gold is treasured not only for its beauty, but also for its utility.
paragraph to a specific aspect of the topic. A controlling idea is a key word or phrase that expresses the basic point of paragraph. It tells the reader what to expect in the paragraph. It usually is the most general and most important statement in the paragraph.
English paragraph structure
A standard paragraph has two important components: 1)A topic sentence 2)Supporting sentences
Understanding the structure of a paragraph
2. Unity
A. Differences between English and Chinese Writing
• It was Robert B. Kaplan, an American applied linguists, who put forward a controversial claim that each culture has its own way of organizing thoughts and that the thought patterns of every culture are unique and not universal. Americans, for example, says, Kaplan, organize their thoughts in a straight line, Asians tend to think in circles.
• 苏州园林据说有一百多处， 我到过的不 过十多处。其他地方的园林我也到过一 些。倘若要我说说总的印象， 我觉得苏 州园林是我国各地园林的标本， 各地园 林或多或少都受到苏州园林的影响。 因 此， 谁 如果要鉴赏我国的园林， 苏州 园林就不该错过。
• 在这个段落中， 作者开头没有给出中心 句，他首先从苏州园林的多谈起，然后 转到苏州园林对其他园林的影响，最后 做出总结，说明自己的看法。这种迂回 式的阐述是典型的螺旋式结构。
B.An effective paragraph
1. Topic sentences
2. Unity
3. Coherence
1. Topic senteFra bibliotekces• A topic sentence is the main idea of a paragraph. It is usually stated in the beginning, middle, or end of a paragraph or sometimes implied.
• (1)Economics is one of the social sciences, alongside subjects such as sociology and political science. (2) It can be divided into two main branches, macro-economics and micro-economics. (3) Macro-economics deals with the economy as a whole and covers a variety of different areas such as banking, taxation policy and theories f the business cycle. (4). Micro-economics deals with the economics of individual businesses
Underline the key words or phrases in the following topic sentences
• My boyfriend is very careless.
• Traffic accidents are often caused by careless drivers.
English (linear structure)
Chinese (spiral structure)
Compare the following two paragraphs
• Powerful computers capable of translating documents from one language into another have been recently developed in Japan. The process of machine translation is complex. To translate a document from English into Japanese, for example, the computer first analyzes an English sentence, determining its grammatical structure and identifying the subject, verb, objects, and modifiers. Next, the words are translated by an English-Japanese dictionary. After that, another part of the computer program analyzes the resulting awkward jumble of words and meanings and produces an intelligible sentence based on the rules of Japanese syntax and the machine’s understanding of what the original English sentence meant. Finally, the computer produced translation is polished by a human bilingual editor.
Social sciences
Political science
economics
sociology
macro-economics
(as a whole)
micro-economics (individual)
Banking
demand
taxation policy
supply
business cycles
• Looking for a job can be a degrading experience.
• Some books read in childhood are truly unforgettable. Some of the characters, the places, the adventures experienced with so much excitement when one is quite young, stay in one’s mind as long as memory lasts. Such a character is Long John Silver in Robert Louis Stevenson’s
Academic Writing
Unit 1 Basic Writing Skills