What Do I Actually Write in a Body Paragraph?
Mr. Bishop called this the PEE Principle
Mr. Lobb calls this Point-Proof-Explain
The Board Office lady calls it Your Words - Text Support - Explanation
This pattern is the same thing every time.
It goes like this:
You state your point or your opinion and it is relevant to the subject or the topic.
eg - I feel that the drinking age, the age when alcohol is legal, should be raised to age 25.
Proof - brain development references - studies on the effects of alcohol on young people, etc.
That proof information is NOT from you. It is your pulling from somewhere else and referring to it that makes your opinion valuable.
“Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death involving people in the 15-25 age group. The rate of fatal crashes among drunken drivers in the 16-25 age group is more than twice the rate for drunken drivers who are 25 or older. Alcohol use also is linked with youthful deaths by drowning, suicide and homicide.”
In readings from Daily News and Analysis...
That third part is EXPLANATION - this is the key in many ways.
It’s easy to have an opinion.
It’s not that hard to get some reference that supports your idea or opinion.
It’s a little bit harder to remember to LINK the information you just got BACK to your main opinion - which is your thesis statement.
In the alcohol example -
Linking back would be explaining how the problems with alcohol and youth would mean that raising the age of legal drinking is good for protecting young people from harm.
The hard part in an essay is that you have one main thesis, and then three body points to prove that thesis.
You have to link back to the main thesis of the whole essay.
Now - you have a new essay topic to develop
Thesis Statement - Mr. Lobb is a bad teacher and a negative influence on the youth of today.
You need to come up with THREE main proofs for this, then for each proof (which would be one paragraph of the whole essay), you need to come up with Point -> Proof -> Explanation
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