A strong paragraph begins with a clear answer to the Aim, then shows the reader why that answer makes sense. Introduce the people and events, choose quotations that support your answer, and explain what each quotation helps us understand. Use the week’s vocabulary and connect the example to a Key Idea, so the paragraph explains history instead of simply listing facts.
The topic sentence answers how we will learn: reading, talking, and writing.
↓sets up the reason for the evidence
A syllabus quotation identifies reading aloud as a way to improve reading.
↓needs explanation
The next sentences explain how reading Takaki builds historical knowledge and reading skill together.
↓connects the routine to its purpose
The paragraph explains how the course plan and notebook help students reach their goals.
This uses the supplied syllabus model: each new sentence develops the opening answer.
EVIDENCE & WRITING SUPPORT
How do we write a good paragraph?
Evidence, facts & appositives+
The syllabus supplies the writing requirements. This single model quote is a scaffold; the completed Aim Response still requires two quotes with appropriate source references.
One possible quote
The topic sentence is your answer to that question, in one sentence.
Course syllabus, “What is a topic sentence?”Course syllabus
What it can show Use this statement to establish the paragraph’s central job, then explain how context, quotes, and analysis support that answer.
Facts & context
The syllabus requires every Word of the Day and at least one explained connection to a Key Idea in each Aim Response.
Course syllabus
Each response needs two information-rich appositives and two direct quotes with page numbers; writers must explain and analyze both quotations.
Course syllabus
The rubric doubles the Evidence score, emphasizing how well the chosen quotes and their analysis advance the paragraph’s argument.
Course syllabus
Sample appositives
The bold phrase renames the noun. Continue with your own main clause.
a topic sentence, the one-sentence argument that answers the weekly Aim,…
Course syllabus
an appositive, a phrase giving essential context inside a sentence,…
Course syllabus
the Evidence score, the doubled rubric category assessing quotes and their analysis,…
Course syllabus
Check Yourself
Every one of these questions will be on the reading quiz.
This check uses the September 2026 Writing Rubric and the supplied class model.
Complete the explanation.
A strong paragraph answers the question with a . Each exact quotation needs quotation marks and a , followed by explanation of what it says and analysis of what it shows. Two add noun phrases that rename people or things. All four Words of the Day belong inside sentences. Name a and explain its connection to the evidence. measures how the whole argument builds.
