Mastering the Power Paragraph: A Comprehensive Guide to Expository Writing

1. Expository Power Paragraph Expository: “to explain or describe something”

2. Purpose By the end of this unit, I want you to be able to: • Plan an expository paragraph with a graphic organizer • Recognize the different parts of a Power Paragraph • Write a strong topic sentence • Write a strong analysis of a piece of writing • Write an overall strong paragraph

3. Parts of a Power Paragraph • Topic sentence • active verb • number • Examples and analysis • use direct quotes from the text • give context to the quote • explain and analyze the support, connecting it back to the topic sentence • Conclusion or transition • wrap up your ideas • connect back to the topic or to the next paragraph

4. Power Paragraphs The power paragraphs should include… • Topic sentence • Number • Active verb • At least two pieces of evidence • Set up the quote with context • Summarize the scene • Include page number like this (1) • Your analysis of the evidence • Transition words (see page 26) • A conclusion sentence that wraps up your analysis and/or transitions to the next paragraph • You need at least two paragraphs in an essay like this

5. Topic Sentence • Tells the reader what they are going to read about; re: the topic of the prompt • For a paragraph ONLY: • include author • include the title of the work • For this assignment: active verb and number

6. Active verb topic sentence • Containsan active verb such as… • agrees • challenges • confuses • demonstrates • displays • elaborates • encourages explains exposes gives identifies illustrates shows uses

7. Active verb topic sentence topic: theme • bad example: • The slur is bad. • What is incorrect about this example? • good example: • In “What Kind of Asian Are You?”, Alex Dang reflects on the pain caused by racial slurs. • What is correct about this sentence? • Your turn: use the prompt and the poem that you and your partner decided on.

8. Number sentence Be sure to include a number word orcount wordsuch as: • a couple of • a number of • numerous • some • various • many • four • several • one • two • twenty • For a paragraph only, you should also include the author and title of the literary work.

9. Who: Alex Dang talks about three ways that hate speech affects him in his poem “What Kind of Asian Are You?” What: In the poem, “What Kind of Asian Are You?”, Alex Dang talks about three ways that hate speech affects him. When: As a child, Alex Dang was affected by hate speech in several ways and wrote a poem called “What Kind of Asian Are You?’ Where: After growing up in California and hearing hate speech, Alex Dang wrote “What Kind of Asian Are You?” to talk about the many ways that it affected him. A number sentence always starts with:

10. How to use citations in MLA • Use quotation marks to indicate that you took words from the text • “I’ve played many a far east stereotype.” (2) • Put a comma before the citation • Dang writes, “I’ve played many a far east stereotype.” (2) • Use a forward-slash (/) to indicate a line break in poetry. • Dang writes, “I’ve played many a far east stereotype/Awkward math genius/Cold and calculated Kung-Fu expert.” (2)

11. Two more things about using quotes • Citations should be short • NEVER correct an author’s grammar • For the purpose of a paragraph, quotes should never be more than two lines long

12. Conlcusion The conclusion should… • Wrap up your ideas • Give a sense of closure • Connect to the next paragraph if you are writing a multi-paragraph essay