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D
EAL WITH ONE MAIN POINT PER PARAGRAPH
As a general rule, try to deal with one key point or aspect of the topic
you are discussing in each paragraph of the body of the essay. If you try
to pack too many key points into one paragraph, you will confuse your
reader and be in danger of being superficial in your treatment of the
question. Don’t try to pack everything essential you have to say into one
paragraph. You should aim to make one key point per paragraph and
then elaborate on it.
Consider this paragraph about celebrity culture in contemporary society
(see page 17):
Celebrity culture, then, is a well-established feature
of our mass media. For example, programmes
devoted to celebrities appear daily in the television
schedules. Celebrities are dispatched to jungles or
undergo various tests for our entertainment and we,
the viewing audience, are expected to be fascinated
by all of this simply because of the participation of
these so-called celebrities. Television producers have
learnt the lesson that attaching the word ‘celebrities’
to a programme can produce dividends in terms of
higher viewing figures. Thus, we, the viewers, become
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3 – T
HE BODY OF THE ESSAY
complicit with this strategy because we supply the
programme-makers with the audience they require
to justify the making of the programme in the first
place. Basically, if we did not watch the
programmes, then they would soon cease to be made.
What is the key point of this paragraph? It is that celebrity culture
permeates most of the mass media. That point is made in the first
sentence of the paragraph:
Celebrity culture, then, is a well-established feature
of our mass media.
We could call this the key sentence of the paragraph. Key sentences
provide a ‘key’ to unlock for your reader what the paragraph is
about. Usually, key sentences come at the beginning of the
paragraph and our advice is to keep to that strategy. By putting
the key sentence of the paragraph first, you are signalling to the readers
what the paragraph is about. The more signals like this you give, the
more coherent your essay becomes.
The point made in the key sentence has then to be developed and ‘given
flesh’. Consider this second sentence:
For example, programmes devoted to celebrities
appear daily in the television schedules.
Having made the main point of the paragraph in the first sentence, you
then have to illustrate what you mean by specific examples or
illustrations. This is done in this second sentence. This is then developed
further in the next two sentences:
Celebrities are dispatched to jungles or undergo
various tests for our entertainment and we, the
viewing audience are expected to be fascinated by
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H
OW TO WRITE ESSAYS
all of this simply because of the participation of these
so-called celebrities. Television producers have
learnt the lesson that attaching the word ‘celebrities’
to a programme can produce dividends in terms of
higher viewing figures.
These sentences give ‘flesh’ to the argument you are making by being
detailed and specific. Having made a key point, you have then to justify
it by example and illustration.
The last two sentences of the paragraph act as a kind of mini-summary
of the paragraph:
Thus, we become complicit with this strategy because
we supply the programme-makers with the audience
they require to justify the making of the programme
in the first place. Basically, if we did not watch the
programmes, then they would soon cease to be made.
The sentence beginning ‘Thus’ draws what we might call ‘an
intermediate conclusion’ based on the evidence that has been supplied in
the paragraph. This is signalled to the readers by the use of ‘Thus’.
The purpose of the last sentence is to draw the paragraph to a neat
conclusion and perhaps point the way to what will be dealt with in the
next paragraph.
For example, you could build on this last sentence in the opening
sentence of your next paragraph:
Audience figures are undoubtedly very important to
everybody involved in the television world. Equally,
in the print media, …
The first sentence of this new paragraph picks up on the point made in
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3 – T
HE BODY OF THE ESSAY
the last sentence of the previous paragraph. Thus, continuity or flow of
ideas is provided for the reader. You have established a system of signals
to the reader: this is how my argument is being developed, you are
saying, follow the directions.
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