Page 61 - SpringBoard_Writing_Workshop_Grade7_Flipbook

Writing Workshop 5 (continued)
Facts, Evidence, Example, and/or Details for Topic Sentence 1
Return to your SOAPSTone analysis to select the best facts, evidence, or examples to support the first position or purpose in the topic sentence. Write those examples below.
• Americans needlessly follow a pattern of buying and throwing away.
• Americans are “trashing” the Earth.
• “Throwing things out is the American way.” • “We’ve run out of places to throw things. ...”
Topic Sentence 2
The class should then review the second position or purpose in the thesis and create a second supporting topic sentence.
Rooney pleads with the American public to change our culture’s wasteful ways before it is too late to save the planet.
Facts, Evidence, Example, and/or Details for Topic Sentence 2
Examples and details should be chosen to support the second topic sentence.
Sample responses:
Trash is a serious problem because we are running out of places to put it.
“We don’t fix anything...so we throw it away and buy a new one.”
“... some of the things we’re throwing away are poisonous to the Earth and will eventually poison all of us and all living things.”
Drafting
Working with your teacher and classmates, begin drafting a response to “America the Not-So-Beautiful.”
Body Paragraphs
A body paragraph has these elements:
• Topic sentence: A sentence that has a subject and an opinion that works directly
to support the thesis.
• Transitions: Words or phrases used to connect ideas (for example, for instance). • Supporting information: Specific facts and details that are appropriate for the
topic, are relevant, and come from a variety of sources. Extraneous details should
not be included, and the supporting information should not have inconsistencies. • Commentary: Sentences that explain how the information is relevant to the thesis/
topic sentence and bring a sense of closure to the paragraph.
6. Read the class sample provided below, and mark the text to identify the elements of a body paragraph.
Rooney’s position names the American people and companies, with their wasteful behavior, as being responsible for destroying the planet. For example, Rooney explains that buying and “throwing things out is the American way,” and that this “serious problem” is creating excessive trash on the planet. The careless culture that Rooney describes is meant to influence his readers to consider their role in the cycle of buying and discarding things. He urges Americans to take the issue seriously, recognize its problematic nature, and cut back on this wasteful pattern before it is
too late.
6 SpringBoard® Writing Workshop with Grammar Activities Grade 7
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