English Language Writing Skills

By Danso Kwasi Nti Samuel (DAS). Study the complete course source, examine every model and practise alongside Professor Jarvis.

Course printed page 108 PDF page 114 of 505

For tables, matching columns, IPA and original formatting, open the course PDF above.

Note: not all essays need to follow all the parts of the body of a paragraph but similar

manner.

Let us go through all the parts of the paragraph.

The major supporting sentence

The major supporting sentence is the second sentence of the whole paragraph. It comes after

the topic sentence. It explains, previews, and highlights the topic sentence by saying

something new about the topic sentence. It explains the first sentence/topic sentence in

another tone. The main job of the major supporting sentence is to state the topic sentence in

a simpler tone. We make use of synonyms (nearest in meaning)

Inadequate parental care ……………………………..parents do not take enough care

Lack of science laboratory…………………………….no science laboratory

Poor roads………………………………………………………bad road

Poverty…………………………………………………………..do not have money/insufficient money

Carbohydrates………………………………………………..energy giving foods

Foreign exchange……………………………………………..funds/money from abroad, etc.

Illustrative example

At this point, we are combining the topic sentence and major supporting sentence

The first cause of teenage pregnancy is inadequate parental care. Some

parents do not take good care of their children.

Note that, the second sentence just says the first in another way; stating another word or

phrase in place of the point. Also, we always start sentences with a noun or pronoun. We

normally use the subject of the essay topic to start the sentence.

Avoid generalization, be specific.