1. Refining composition skills
Student: Fernández, Micaela
Subject: English Language I

2. What’s a paragraph?
A paragraph is defined as a group of sentences, in which the first one is intended -it begins a little more to the right that the rest of the text-. It’s objective is to develop a topic.
For example, the topic of this paragraph are ice cream sundaes.

3. Development of a topic
First of all, it’s necessary to introduce the topic with a sentence, which includes a controlling idea, that states the idea about the topic, and it should be clear and focused; it’s usually near the beginning of the paragraph.
Controlling idea
Topic sentence

4. Writing
There are different ways of arranging the sentences and details on the paragraphs, and the one the writer chooses depends on his/her purpose. If the writer wants to focus on the description of a place, the method it’s called spatial development, and it can be a description about a place or a person. However, if the attention is set in the order of time, we’re talking about chronological development (which can be a narration or a process description).

5. Narration Present narration Past narration
The tense chosen is Present Simple or Continuous.
A chronological order should be followed, so there’s time relationship between ideas.
Adverbials of time –such as ‘first’, ‘after that’, ‘next’, etc – can be used to connect ideas.
The tense chosen is Past simple or Continuous, Past Perfect Simple or Continuous, Present Perfect Simple or Continuous.
Adverbials of time + noun phrases, create adverbial clauses of time, which can be useful for coherence. For example: “after I had finished the homework she…”

6. Descriptions
What a writer aims with a description is to describe something or someone in order to make an impact on the reader’s senses. They focus on what they see, smell, hear, taste and feel. Vivid descriptions are achieved by modifying details, by combining nouns with adjectives, with adjectives + prepositional phrases, and with clauses. This will make the description specific

7. Description of a place
In this case, a controlling idea could be “The main room in my house is the small and simple living.” The dominating object would be the fireplace.
First, a controlling idea would state an attitude towards the place being described. After writing it, choosing an object to dominate the scene could help develop the rest of the description; usually, it’s something noticeable at first sight.
To help coherence, adverbs of place and prepositional phrases are used, like ‘behind/under/over/opposite/etc something’.

8. Description of a person
As always, a controlling idea will help to reach clearness.
A person can be described by they physical appearance, their behavior, or both.
Relative clauses are a good resource to improve coherence and avoid repetition. Examples: “The girl whose parents are doctors”
Controlling idea “The most innocent girl I have ever known”

9. Expository paragraph Literary devices used
The purpose of this type of paragraph is to explain a topic, usually with specific details and examples. The controlling idea is called generalization, which applies to a group, and it can be an opinion or a fact. Transitional words/phrases, that is connectors and links, can be used to help the text flow smoothly by relating sentences..
Literary devices used
Illustrations
Examples
Anecdotes
Allusions
Examples, that include more details.
Item that represents a group of things. At least one should be specific.
Brief story that dramatizes the point of the controlling idea.
References to people, things, places, etc.

10. Coherence in expository paragraph
Although there isn’t a set pattern of organization, there are some common ways:
Order of importance: The best examples are the last ones, because readers tend to remember most what they read last.
Order of familiarity: If the paragraph develops facts, the details should go from the more familiar to the less.
Order of time: If the facts are events from the past, they should be organized according to chronology.