Section One From Paragraph to Essay
You have learned how to write a good paragraph in the previous chapter.Now you will learn how to organize paragraphs into a good essay.
As you know, a paragraph consists of three parts: the topic sentence, developing sentences, and the concluding sentence.Similarly, an essay is made up of three parts: the introductory paragraph, the body paragraphs, and the concluding paragraph.Therefore, if you can write a good paragraph, you can write a good essay, too.
Read the following paragraph about the sinking of the Titanic , and identify the three parts that a good paragraph usually has.
Three reasons may have accounted for the sinking of the Titanic.First, the crew was insufficiently trained for such an emergency.Many of the lifeboats left the ship only half full while others could have taken several more people.When the Titanicdisappeared into the ocean, only one lifeboat went back to pick up survivors.What's worse, the ship was not equipped with enough lifeboats.Although hundreds of millions of dollars had been spent in decorating the ship, this most luxurious liner afloat was lacking in the vital essentials of lifesaving equipment.But worst of all, international radio service was seriously inefficient.Within ten miles of the Titanicwas another ship, the Californian.When the Titanicsent out emergency calls near midnight, the radio operator of the Californianhad already gone to bed.At that time, there were no international maritime regulations requiring a radio operator to be on duty twenty four hours a day.Hopefully, this kind of tragedy will never happen again.
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Now look at the following diagram to see how a paragraph such as the one above can be expanded into an essay.The topic sentence of the paragraph goes to the introductory paragraph of the essay.The three major developing sentences of the paragraph are developed further in each of the three body paragraphs in the essay.Finally, the concluding sentence of the paragraph is expanded into the concluding paragraph of the essay.