Forming a Body Paragraph

Forming a Body Paragraph

A body paragraph is like a cheese burger.

Each sentence in your paragraph is like a layer of a burger

Top Bun: Claim

• This is your claim, or topic sentence.

• Remember that a claim is a statement that can be argued.

• For Example: Esperanza demonstrated she was an ungrateful daughter in the first vignette, The House on Mango Street.

Lettuce: background

• After your claim, you need to give your reader background information

• Always pretend that you are writing to someone who has no idea what you are talking about.

• For example: Esperanza demonstrated she was an ungrateful daughter in the first vignette, The House on Mango Street. In this vignette she explains how disappointed she was in the run down house her parents bought. She points out all of the negative aspects of the house.

Multiple Choice

What do you do after writing a claim?

• Give textual evidence to prove it.

• Provide background info to the reader.

• Talk to Ms. Alarcon directly since she is grading it.

Tomato: introducing a quote

• In this next layer, you need to get prep for your textual evidence.

• Sentence frames:

• For example, in the text it says, "TEXUAL EVIDENCE"

• According to Esperanza, "TEXUAL EVIDENCE"

• The author states, "TEXUAL EVIDENCE"

Cheese: Textual Evidence

• This is your evidence. You need to provide evidence from the story to prove your claim.

• Make sure you are copying the evidence exactly as it is written originally. (including punctuation and spelling)

• Make sure to ALWAYS wrap textual evidence in "quotation marks"

• For example: Esperanza demonstrated she was an ungrateful daughter in the first vignette, The House on Mango Street. In this vignette she explains how disappointed she was in the run down house her parents bought. She points out all of the negative aspects of the house. For example, the text states, "But the house on Mango Street is not the way they told it at all."

Multiple Choice

What do you need to wrap around your textual evidence?

• parenthesis

• commas

• quotation marks

Multiple Choice

Which one is written correctly?

• For example, Esperanza says, "But the house on Mango Street is not the way they told it at all.

• For example, Esperanza says "But the house on Mango Street is not the way they told it at all.

• For example, Esperanza says, "But the house on Mango Street is not the way they told it at all."

• For example, Esperanza says, But the house on Mango Street is not the way they told it at all.

Meat Layer: Your Explanation

• This is the MOST IMPORTANT part of your paragraph.

• This is where you explain why the textual evidence proves your claim.

• Over explaining is always better than under explaining

• After every sentence, ask yourself, "So what?"

• Example: This evidence proves that Esperanza is ungrateful because she only focuses her attention on the negative parts of the house. This shows us that she didn’t pay attention to the positive part of owning a house. This also tells us that she didn’t thank her parents. This proves that she is ungrateful.

Multiple Choice

What is the most important part of the explanation?

• over explaining

• making sure you are explaining your claim.

• textual evidence