Paragraphing and Topic Sentences

Aim:	to help students understand the function of paragraphs and topic sentences in discursive writing
Target Audience:	students
Relevance to IELTS:	General Training Writing
Organisation:	pairs
Materials needed:	Worksheet

1. Ask students to carry out the task on the worksheet in pairs.
   
   
2. When students have completed their answers, correct them and give feedback.
   
   
3. Give students another piece of discursive writing without paragraphs and ask them to carry out steps 1 and 2 again on this new text.

Notes/Variations:

• We use paragraphs to signal that we, the writer, are moving on to a new point or new type of information. Paragraphs help the reader to understand our message because they show that one point has ended and another is just beginning. It is also much easier to read small chunks of text than long, continuous ones.
• Topic sentences contain the theme of the paragraph. They usually but not always occur at the beginning of a paragraph. They make the theme of the paragraph very clear to the reader and so help to give a text coherence. The rest of the paragraph is usually elaboration and/or exemplification of the theme.