Tutorial: Essay Body Paragraphs

 

Study Skill 13.2  Tutorial: Essay Body Paragraphs

 

Introduction

Looking at two example essays, we will break down the parts of a body paragraph. Here is the prompt for the essay: 

  Writing Prompt

Write a five-paragraph expository essay on the topic of fast food.  Your target audiences are your peers and teacher.  Remember, an expository essay provides information.  You are NOT trying to persuade someone to eat or not eat fast food.  Your introduction should have a hook, an overview of the body of your essay, and a strong thesis statement.  Each body paragraph must have a topic sentence, several supporting sentences, and a transition sentence to the next paragraph.  The conclusion should restate your thesis using different words and connect the information to your life and that of your reader.  Facts and information from sources must have MLA format in-text citations.  Don’t forget to include a Works Cited page in MLA format on a separate page at the end of your essay.

Read the directions for your essay assignment carefully.  You may have 1 or 2 or 3 required body paragraphs.  For a five-paragraph essay you will need three body paragraphs.  The other two paragraphs will be your introduction and your conclusion.  This will give you a total of five paragraphs.  It is a good idea to go over the grading rubric for the assignment as well.  It will tell you again how many paragraphs are required.  As a rule, each body paragraph must include: 

a. Topic sentence

b. Supporting sentences

i. Must have at least three 

ii. Should connect to and support the topic

c. Transition sentence

i. Comes at the end of the paragraph, like a clincher or concluding sentence

ii. May serve as a sense of closure for a complete point or serves to connect the current point to the next point. 

iii. Overall, creates a bridge to the next paragraph.

Below are two example body paragraphs:

Example 1 

      80 percent of Americans eat fast food once a month (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/crispy-salty-american-history-fast-food-180972459/ Links to an external site.) and that is too much because fast food is bad for you even if it has vegetables and protein it can still have chemicals that can cause cancer or hurt you in other ways.

Example 2 

       It is common knowledge that eating fast food is not healthy.  It doesn’t matter if you choose tacos, pizza, or burgers, the calories and chemicals consumed are greater than if you made these same foods at home using fresh ingredients.  According to Matthew Thompson, an editor for Eating Well  Magazine, a Big Mac from McDonald’s has 540 calories and 29 mg of saturated fat.  Thompson states that if you made this same burger at home, you would consume 375 calories and 16 mg of saturated fat.  While the homemade burger is still on the unhealthy side, it is significantly fewer calories and fat than the Big Mac made at McDonald’s.  Thompson also looks at the sodium in Big Mac, which is double that of a homemade burger coming in at a whopping 1,010 mg. According to Thompson, another issue contributing to the unhealthiness of the Big Mac is the buns, which are highly processed and contain several different chemicals.  He compares this to a bun you could buy from a local bakery that has just five ingredients.   The problem of making unhealthy choices is compounded when unhealthy foods take the place of healthy foods in our diets. A study has shown that children who attend school near fast-food restaurants eat fewer servings of fruits and vegetables, more sugary drinks and had a higher propensity to be overweight when compared to children who did not attend school near these places of business (Davis and Carpenter 505).   Faced with the growing concern over childhood obesity and the growing concern about unhealthy ingredients, many restaurants are expanding their healthier menu options.

Paragraph Analysis

Click on the tabs below to review the key concepts of a body paragraph and answer questions about each.

Practice

Use the following new example body paragraph to answer the questions in Practice 1 and Practice 2 below.

   New Sample Body Paragraph

In order to decrease and, hopefully, stop cyberbullying, adults as well as students should understand what they can do.  Adults need to take proactive stances and act quickly when they find out about any bullying going on in social media platforms. According to government experts, it is imperative that school personnel establish clear policies and regulations about how students should treat each other on social media as well as face to face (www.stopbullying.gov).  If it wouldn’t be acceptable in person, it is not acceptable on social media.   For parents, it is essential to remember that they are role models and what they say and do matters.  Children take cues from the adults in their lives and if they see or hear a parent bullying, chances are they will repeat this negative behavior (www.kidpower.org).  Teaching kids to be mindful of what they post is also important.  Do you know who is seeing your posts?  Security measures such as passwords and settings are important when it comes to keeping yourself safe from cyberbullies.  At the end of the day, the best protection against cyberbullying is you.

 

Key Ideas

  • Refer to the assignment directions and grading rubric to determine how many body paragraphs are required for your essay.
  • Each body paragraph must consist of these three parts:  topic sentence, supporting sentences, transition sentence.
  • Each body paragraph must have at least three supporting sentences that connect to and support the topic.
  • The transition sentence creates a bridge to the topic of the next paragraph.  It is not a concluding or summarizing sentence.  
  • Any facts or information gathered from sources must be correctly cited in MLA format and a Works Cited page must be attached to the essay.  Failure to do this correctly results in plagiarism.

Apply

  • Share a fact with your friend or family member and include original analysis of the information.  For example, when you tell your mom “Frosted Flakes breakfast cereal has 9 important nutrients.” also include your personal analysis by adding “These nutrients can help me pay attention in school and get better grades.”  

  • Try paraphrasing your assignment directions in other classes.  This will give you practice in this skill and help you to build your vocabulary.  If your math assignment is “Find the answer to all the problems on page 37 and check your work with a friend.” you can paraphrase this as “After solving the calculations on page 37, collaborate with a classmate to compare answers and get guidance.”  The more you practice this skill the easier it will become.

  • When you watch television use your imagination to write transitions between the advertisements.  How could you write a sentence to bridge between an ad for toothpaste and an ad for candy?  What transition sentence would work well to help the viewer connect the ads for laundry soap and a local restaurant?