Exploring Writing 2nd Edition by John Langan

Exercise 26

The following activity will give you practice in writing an accurate point. Often you will start with a general topic or a general idea of what you want to write about. You may, for example, want to write a paragraph about some aspect of school life. To come up with a point about school life, begin by limiting your topic. One way to do this is to make a list of all the limited topics you can think of that fit under the general topic. Each of the general topics below is followed by a series of limited topics. Make a point out of one of the limited topics in each group.
Hint
To create a topic sentence, ask yourself, "What point do I want to make about _______ ( my limited topic ) "
EXAMPLE
Recreation
• Movies
• Dancing
• TV shows
• Reading
• Sports parks
Your point: Sports parks today have some truly exciting games.
1. Your school
• Instructor
• Cafeteria
• Specific course
• Particular room or building
• Particular policy (attendance, grading, etc.)
• Classmate
Your point: _____________________________________________
______________________________________________________
2. Job
• Pay
• Boss
• Working conditions
• Duties
• Coworkers
• Customers or clients
Your point: ______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
3. Money
• Budgets
• Credit cards
• Dealing with a bank
• School expenses
• Ways to get it
• Ways to save it
Your point: ______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
4. Cars
• First car
• Driver's test
• Road conditions
• Accident
• Mandatory speed limit
• Safety problems
Your point: ______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
5. Sports
• A team's chances
• At your school
• Women's team
• Recreational versus spectator
• Favorite team
• Outstanding athlete
Your point: ______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________