 Materials: When you write a Schaffer paragraph, you will need blue, red, and green pens (or yellow, pink, and green highlighters).  BLUE (YELLOW) is for Topic Sentences (TS) and Concluding Sentences (CS).  RED (PINK) is for Concrete Details (CD).  GREEN (GREEN) is for Commentary Sentences (CM).

 One-Chunk Body Paragraph  Sent. #1—Topic Sentence—TS  Sent. #2—CD—starts with “For example”  Sent. #3—CM—(This shows that...)  Sent. #4—CM—(It also indicates... ; This is because... ; This is important because...)  Sent. #5—Concluding Sentence—CS—Sums it up and ties back to the thesis (As a result,... )

 A Topic Sentence  TS = first sentence of the paragraph  It shows the main idea.  Usually a mildly controversial statement  Something that you have to prove  Also called an assertion  It can be as brief as three words!

 In the fairy tale “Cinderella,” the main character feels mistreated.

 Concrete Detail (CD)  This is the evidence from the literature.  The WHAT for your commentary  Plot References  Facts, examples from story (what happened), support  Include citations (with page numbers) CD’s can’t be argued with—a CD is evidence that supports your point!

 For example, Cinderella must do all of the cooking and cleaning for her family.

 Commentary—(CM)  This is the stuff from inside your head!  This is the answer to “so what?”  Your words and explanations  May be referred to as: Analysis Interpreting Inference Insight Reasons Commentary Elaboration

 These chores keep her isolated and friendless. The stepmother is thus able to give Cinderella even more work, which prevents her from going to the ball.

 Concluding Sentence (CS)  A CS wraps up the paragraph.  It rephrases the main idea.

 Therefore, Cinderella feels abused by the very people who are supposed to love her.

 CHUNKING  A combination of CDs and CMs is called a “chunk.”  In English, we will mostly use a combination (or “ratio”) of 1:2.  That is, for every one CD, you will have two CMs.

 For example, Cinderella must do all of the cooking and cleaning for her family (CD). These chores keep her isolated and friendless (CM). The stepmother is thus able to give Cinderella even more work, which prevents her from going to the ball (CM).

OOne-Chunk Body Paragraph SSent. #1—Topic Sentence—TS SSent. #2—CD—starts with “For example” SSent. #3—CM—(This shows that...) SSent. #4—CM—(It also indicates... OR... This is because... OR... This is important because...) SSent. #5—Concluding Sentence—CS—Sums it up and ties back to the thesis (As a result,...)

 For homework, use the appropriate colors to identify each part (TS, CD, CM [x2!], CS) of the “Cinderella” paragraph.  If you are using colored pens, underline the parts of the paragraph in the appropriate colors.  If you are using highlighters, highlight the sentences in the appropriate colors.