Paragraph Assignment
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The purpose of a paragraph is to help the reader navigate through different topics in a piece of writing. Each paragraph should deal with only one topic or idea or issue. Very often, students write papers with looooooooooooong paragraphs that wander around from topic to topic. This makes your reader have to work very hard to figure out what your ultimate point is, and where you are going.

This assignment is designed to help you get practice in writing nice paragraphs, ones that stick to a single topic and also use lots of evidence to prove their claims.

This mini assignment will be collected and graded. Please bring three copies of the paragraph to class. Everyone will be asked to write the paragraph on the same topic, which is the presence of violence in Maxim Magazine. Since Jackson Katz (of Tough Guise) claims that violent masculinity has become a cultural norm rather than the exception, I thought it might be interesting to look at Maxim and see if there is much violence or not, and if so, what is there to say about it.

Now, you may ultimately decide that you want to write two or three paragraphs about violence in your paper, or you may choose to write NOTHING about it. This is YOUR choice. (You are not required to include this paragraph in the final paper.) If you have a lot to say about this topic, try to choose one aspect of it only to focus on in this paragraph, and say the rest in additional paragraphs when you write the paper.

The paragraph must be between 175 and 225 words. (The reason for this is that effective paragraphs, in general, should not be too short or too long.) Please include word count on your paper. The first sentence of the paragraph should function as a topic sentence, that is, it should let the reader see what the topic of the paragraph is. Either in the first or 2nd sentence, you should make an assertion or a claim about the topic.

Which of these sentences works best as a topic sentence for a paragraph on violence in Maxim?

1. "There is a lot of violence in Maxim, as we might expect." 2. "Men seem to enjoy violence, specifically the after-math of their encounters with pain." 3. "The topic of violence is very clear in Maxim magazine." 4. "Masculinity is part of manhood which must be proved repeatedly with violence that the media helps structure as a norm in our society."

Here are my comments on these sample topic sentences:

1. Well, it may be a bit simplistic, but at least this topic sentence tells us what the paragraph will be about---violence in Maxim!!
2. Doesn't tell us that the paragraph is going to talk about violence in MAXIM. Presents a subjective judgment that will be hard to prove. Ick.
3. Well, it does tell us what the paragraph will be about, but it is too bland and brief.
4. Might sound OK, but still, it doesn't tell us that the paragraph is about violence in MAXIM. You want to help your reader see where you are taking her!

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Next, the paragraph should present concrete evidence from the magazine(s) that illustrates the assertion or claim you are making about violence in Maxim. Make sure to present a sufficient amount of evidence to really convince your reader that what you are claiming is true. A teeny shred of evidence won't do the trick. After presenting your evidence, explain/analyze how the evidence supports the claim you are making. Try to write a concluding sentence that sums up the paragraph for the reader. It is optional to mention or quote from one of the authors we read for class (or a film) to help support the claim your paragraph is making. Tip: never end a paragraph with a quotation--it leaves the reader hanging. (You should also never begin a paragraph with a quotation--it's disorienting for the reader, who doesn't know what to do with the quote if you throw it at her without warning.)

Reminder: you are to write about your February Maxim--not the article "The Code"!!

Good Luck!