639 - Great Paragraphs. Falling off the Turnip Truck.

Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

Mignon Fogarty, Inc.

Society & Culture, Education

4.5 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 20 September 2018

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Go beyond formulaic essay rules and create paragraphs that will hook your readers. Also, we figure out why people say they didn't just fall off the turnip truck. FOLLOW GRAMMAR GIRL Twitter: http://twitter.com/grammargirl Facebook: http://facebook.com/grammargirl Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/realgrammargirl Instagram: http://instagram.com/thegrammargirl LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/grammar-girl SPONSORS http://campaignmonitor.com/grammar GRAMMAR POP iOS GAME Optimized for iPad: http://bit.ly/GrammarPopiPad For iPad and iPhone: http://bit.ly/GrammarPop GRAMMAR GIRL BOOKS http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-girl-book-page

Transcript

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0:00.0	[♪ INTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪
0:04.8	Grimer Girl here, I'm Minyeon Fogarty.
0:07.1	This week we'll talk about how to begin and end paragraphs
0:10.5	and why we might exclaim I didn't just fall off the turnip truck, you know.
0:14.9	Let's get started.
0:16.2	This first segment is by Edwin Battistella.
0:19.8	We should pay more attention to paragraphs.
0:22.4	I know that sounds obvious, but what I'm fretting about is the advice
0:26.4	that beginning writers get to begin paragraphs with topic sentences
0:30.9	and end with summary sentences.
0:33.9	Such a topic sandwich filled with subpoints,
0:37.0	supporting sentences and examples
0:39.4	lends itself to formulaic writing.
0:42.4	This strategy of tell them what you're going to tell them,
0:45.6	tell them, then tell them what you told them,
0:48.3	can be useful for public speaking,
0:50.4	where listeners don't have a text to follow.
0:53.2	But in written exposition, readers don't need you to be quite such a tour guide.
0:57.9	They can refer back to the previous text.
1:00.8	They can read slowly when they need to,
1:03.1	or skim or skip ahead when they get bored.
1:05.9	And if you bore them, they will skip ahead.
	...

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