"Which one is the topic sentence?"

Last Wednesday, we had a workshop with some snacks given by our kindest lecturer, Miss Vita. Hehe:D. We reviewed our friend’s work about comparison and contrast paragraph. While we were reviewing it, the snacks accompanied us. Haha. Maybe, if all of our lecturers are like Miss Vita, we will always attend the class, wherever and whenever. Hehehe… Am I sure???

Last Friday, September 28, 2012, we had some presentations about some types of paragraph. There were 6 presenters, they are:

1.     Achi

She presented about definition paragraph. She was almost like me because she just showed us her paragraph and we answered what the type of paragraph that was. Our answer and hers are same, definition paragraph.

2.     Aris

He presented about argumentative paragraph. But his paragraph consisted of several paragraphs because he gave space in his paragraph by himself. The reasons and the supporting sentences were separated. Perhaps, he wanted his friends (us) easily understand about the basic of his paragraph. The topic sentence that he chose was wrong. He looked confused. The first sentence in his paragraph was not the appropriate topic sentence. And the definite position in the last paragraph was not appropriate, too.

3.     Rois

He presented about cause and effect paragraph. Some of our friends disagreed that the paragraph was cause and effect. Maybe, because the paragraph just explained the effects in details, they thought that it was not cause and effect. We didn’t realize that the cause in the topic sentence was clear. We knew that the purposes of cause and effect are to explain causes, effects, or both. So, where there is cause, there is effect.

4.     Ima

She presented about argumentative paragraph, but her opinion was not as same as our thinking. We think that the paragraph was report because it informed the reader about the topic, midwife training.

5.     Aida Kajol

She presented about cause and effect paragraph. And everybody agreed that the paragraph was cause and effect.

6.     Aida

She presented about illustration paragraph. But when she chose the topic sentence, it didn’t support the supporting sentence. The whole paragraph told about Craig Jones  as the writer’s true friend.

From the presentations, we know that the topic sentence is not always in the beginning or the last paragraph. The supporting sentence must support the topic sentence. For cause and effect, the purposes are to explain causes, effects, or both. So, where there is cause, there is effect.

Slow But Sure..

          Enjoying writing class with some presentations about types of paragraph is necessary to be felt, done, and so on. Why??? Because we know that even though we have been learning this topic for about 3 weeks and haven’t continue to next topic, this learning system will make us more understand about the topic thoroughly. We are slow, but we are sure that we understand the topic that we learn.

          Last meeting, we discussed in details about comparison and contrast, explanation, argumentation, process analysis, definition, etc. The first presenter, Via, presented about contrast paragraph. It called contrast because the paragraph told the reader about the differences of two objects. The second presenter presented about argumentative paragraph but we didn’t agree with Via’s statement. Some of us stated that it was definition paragraph. But several students still disagreed. Because definition never defined anything by the “according to….” method, while in Via’s paragraph presented an object according to the writer perspective. Finally, Miss Vita asked Via where she got that paragraph. Via said that she got it from literature book which told about the writer’s experiences. It contained opinions about literature but it wasn’t argumentative.

          Not all of argumentative paragraphs are signed by “I”. Miss Vita said that argumentative must have clear motion and need the opposing views. And it’s not only “according to me” in one sense. Finally, we understood that it wasn’t an argumentative paragraph. It was explanation and the sentences “When I was……” were the supporting sentences.

          And the next presenters, we didn’t have any problems to guess what the types of paragraph presenting.

we are confused or it is confusing...

Yesterday, we discussed about types of paragraph that were presented by some of our friends, Putri, Yogi, Qhat, and Okta. Putri presented 2 paragraphs which had different types of paragraph, comparison and process analysis. As she explained about first paragraph, it had been clear that the paragraph was comparison because the subjects had similarities and the supporting sentences showed the readers to help them make decision or understand the subject. The second paragraph was process analysis. But it isn’t in the form of paragraph. Miss Vita suggested her to form it to paragraph and decide the topic sentence.

And Yogi...???? He and his paragraph made our class full of controversy. Hehe..:D. His paragraph showed us many of the main ideas. It made us confused because it was confusing. When we asked him several times, “Did you modify the paragraph by yourself?”, he answered “not”. We tried to understand and decide what type of paragraph is. And finally he admitted that he combine some paragraphs to be one paragraph. So, that’s why his paragraph was confusing. The next presenter was Qhat. She presented description paragraph, but we didn’t agree because description is describe and appeal to the 5 senses. We decided that paragraph was illustration because it had a point and supporting sentences showed or explained the point in detail but not appeal to the 5 senses.

The last presenter was Okta. She explained about description. Yeeaaahh.... it had been clear that the paragraph was description. But the topic which she found was not appropriate with the supporting sentences. Therefore, we had to find the specific and the most appropriate topic in the paragraph so we could find the topic sentence.

After discussing, we more understand and know that we can’t add or detract sentence in paragraph because it will be influential to the paragraph. And we also know that the topic sentence is not always available in the paragraph or in the beginning sentence of paragraph, we can compose it by using our own words based on the content of its paragraph.

my reflection after having discussion class

Being available in last writing class was enjoyable for me. Although I was just be able to be silent, but I like it, discussion class, talked active, and little bit "GJ" maybe because of Iswatin's paragraph. hehe :D. I was totally confused before, but after discussing what the types of those paragraphs are, finally it is understandable. We could conclude that Iswatin's paragraph was not good paragraph because we did not find coherence in paragraph.
How about Dina's paragraph? The first paragraph is narration because it's normally chronological order (natural time sequence). And Miss Vita said that narration doesn't always have conflict. The second paragraph almost made us frustration and confused. Some of us argued that it was process analysis because we just read the logical sequence, and argued that it was classification and argumentation. And the last presenter was Lalang, we discussed about cause and effect. I could understand that the topic sentence have showed the cause and effect.
after having discussion class, I could more understand that topic sentence always shows what type it is ( to argued, to narrate, to describe,etc.).

paragraph

A paragraph is a series of sentences that are organized and coherent, and related to a single topic. A paragraph gives one main idea that explains what it is about. every single paragraph has a topic sentence that convey theme or main idea. Beside topic sentence, paragraph also has supporting sentence that usually helps to develop a main idea.
Paragraph can contain many different kinds of information or series of brief examples and illustration. it might describe a place, character, or process(description), narrate a series of events(narration), persuade people to change their minds or take an action (persuasion), analyze the process into a series of steps and the steps into sequence (process analysis), compare or contrast two or more things (comparison), and define an item (definition).