TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD - HARPER LEE - NOVEL - PARAGRAPH WRITING

PARAGRAPH POINTERS: PARTS OF A PARAGRAPH USING “TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD” by HARPER LEE

Most paragraphs have three main parts:

·       The topic sentence (the POINT in the PEEL paragraph).

·       The supporting sentences. These start with an EXPLANATION of your point, followed by EXAMPLE/S or EVIDENCE in a PEEL paragraph.

·       The concluding sentence. This links to the THESIS of your essay, or links to the POINT of your next paragraph. If you’re writing a stand-alone paragraph, your concluding sentence will summarise your paragraph.

SO LET’S PRACTISE:

The first part of the paragraph is called the topic sentence/POINT. This sentence tells the reader what the paragraph is about.

READ the paragraph below. Look for the topic sentence/POINT.

In literature, the author expresses his/her attitude towards the subject primarily through the characters and events. In “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Harper Lee feels strongly the need for human understanding and conscience, especially in regards to the attitude of the whites to the negroes of Maycomb County in the 1930s. The main character and narrator, Scout Finch, uses forthright observations which are often humourous, but which reveal much about the attitudes in the South, as the reader follows her progression from prejudice and intolerance to understanding. Her journey is carefully guided by her father, Atticus, who teaches Scout and her brother Jem to “…appreciate the good qualities in people and understand the bad qualities by treating others with sympathy…trying to see life from their perspective.” In this, the author successfully reveals her attitude towards the themes of the novel through the characters of Scout, Jem and their father, Atticus.

ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS:

1.     What is the topic/POINT? _________________________________________________________

2.     Rewrite the second and consequent sentences, which are the supporting sentences. How do these sentences use facts and descriptions to offer an EXPLANATION for the topic sentence? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3.     Write down the EXAMPLE/EVIDENCE used to back up the EXPLANATION. Is this a good example? Why? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4.     The last part of the paragraph is the concluding sentence. It ties together all the sentences in the paragraph. Copy the concluding sentence here. In what way could this link to a THESIS?

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