The examples below demonstrate how a paragraph is typically constructed and how to break it down into its key elements:
"Now you have learned several ways in which rocks are broken into pieces. Weathering damages rocks exposed to air and water. Water, oxygen, and carbon dioxide may change them chemically into softer materials. Expansion and contraction during changes of temperature and the freezing of water in cracks break the hardest rocks into pieces. Plants and animals also help change rocks. Another way in which rocks are broken up is by moving water, wind and ice. Moving water and ice grind rocks together and wear them down. Wind-blown sand cuts rocks to pieces. In all these ways, rocks are constantly broken up and worn away."Example 1
- Rocks are broken up in several ways
- Weathering
- Plants and animals
- Moving water and ice
As you can see, the most important part, or the main idea, of this paragraph is that rocks are broken up in several ways. (This idea is stated in the first sentence and repeated in the last sentence.)
"The ancient Hebrews regarded the body of a dead person as something unclean and not to be touched. The early American Indians talked about the evil spirits and shoots arrows in the air to drive the spirits away. Many other cultures have rituals to take care of the "bad" dead person, and they all originate in this feeling of anger, which still exists in all of us, though we dislike admitting it. The tradition of the tombstone may originate in this wish to keep the bad spirits deep in the ground, and the pebbles that mourners put on the grave are left-over symbols of the same wish. Though we call the firing of guns at military funerals a last salute, it is the same symbolic ritual as the Indian used when he throws his spears and arrows into the skies I give these examples to emphasize that man has not basically changed. Death is still a fearful, frightening happening, and the fear of death is a universal fear even if we think we have mastered it on many levels." Kubler-Ross, On Death and Dying (Fleming, Laraine, 1990, p. 403)Example 2
- Examples which show that death is still a fearful, frightful happening, and the fear of death is a universal fear...
- Ancient Hebrews
- Early American Indians
- Other cultures' rituals
- Tombstones
- Military funerals
Back to Reading in the Textbook Reading Workshop
Materials from, Flemming, READING FOR RESULTS, 4ed 1990 315920^ Developmental English
displayed with special permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All Rights Reserved.
