OK so we just finished taking a look at the introductions and again normally I'm sure you're thinking
all right.
So now we're going to talk about body paragraphs.
Well before we talk about the body paragraphs as a whole let's talk about the most important sentence
in a body paragraph the topic sentence.
In fact the topic sentence is the second most important sentence or the second most important sentences
in the entire essay because the topic sentence directs and controls the paragraph.
The thesis statement is the most important because it directs and controls the entire essay The topic
sentences are the second most important because they direct and control individual paragraphs
so see when you have really good thesis statements and really good topic sentences you end up having
great coherence.
You have great coherence you have great organization you end up answering the question so many problems
I see in in in these timed essays revolve around topic sentences writing bad topics sentences if you
write a bad topic sentence while you're you're in trouble because there's a good chance that you're
about to write an incoherent paragraph.
So let's look at what what is a topic sentence or how to do it do it correctly
the topic sentence of course it starts the body paragraphs it allows for you to see what the entire
paragraph is going to be about is a complete sentence you don't talk about details in a topic sentence
you don't talk about details in a topic sentence you don't talk about details in a topic sentence no
the video is not broken I repeated that three times because that's one of the biggest mistakes that
I see over and over again right the topic sentence you know can have a transition write a topic sentence
when you're when you're talking about a topic sentence really what you're talking about are the questions
to ask what is the general statement that organize it is this paragraph under one idea and also you
could talk about how was connected to my previous paragraph or idea so really what this is talking about
here is that a topic sentence sometimes can transition from the previous paragraph and that's really
how you go about building coherence.
So again what is the topic sentence the topic sentence is a sentence that summarizes the topic for your
reader just like when you look at a thesis statement you should know what the entire essays about in
your position and blueprint when you look at a topic sentence I should know exactly what that entire
paragraph is going to be about right the topic sentence makes it easy to stay focused on the topic and
then you have to develop the ideas in that topic sentence when you're writing a body paragraph you can
not go outside of what's in that topic sentence you can not go outside of it you have to stay inside
the box of the topic sentence that's why writing a topic sentence and knowing how to write them correctly
is so so important
I think of the topic sentence as a mini thesis write the topic sentence has to relate to the thesis
statement the topic sentences are going to support that these statement they're going to give unity
and focus to the entire essay topic sentences are so so important right now.
Earlier I was talking about different ways of writing a topic sentence right.
Is that the beginning of a paragraph or you can have it where it's a transition sentence and the topic
sentence right.
So here in this example right here however Morrison does not only use the emotional and spiritual battles
between her female characters to initiate their coming of age.
In addition so in the second set right here is a topic sentence.
This first sentence is a transition from the previous paragraph.
And then the second sentence is the topic sentence for this paragraph.
Right.
So topic sentences can really be used to have great great coherence.
Topic sentences can connect the ideas from the previous paragraph and lead into the next paragraph.
That's how you have to know how to write topic sentences.
That's why they're so important.
Right.
So just like we talked earlier about testing a thesis statement.
You can also test the topic sentence when you're testing a topic sentence.
You should be able to look at that sentence and identify the controlling idea right.
Then look at the other sentences in that paragraph and make sure that those sentences all address that
controlling idea and also answer the question in that answer the position in the thesis statement
if you have the same topic sentence more than once you have two paragraphs with the same work.
One of them out if you look at the paragraph and you have sentences that don't relate to that topic
sent to the topic sentence.
You need to take those sentences and form a different paragraph or just cut them out altogether.