30 / Basics of Good Writing
SAMPLE MULTI-PARAGRAPH PAPER
The following five-paragraph theme includes the traditional introductory paragraph,
three body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph. Once you have finished your
own theme, compare its structure with the one following.
Land of the Free and the Wild
A great horned owl hoots across the quiet water and then glides through the stand of bald
cypress along the eastern side of the swamp. Whip-poor-wills call; bullfrogs croak; mosquitoes
hum. Darkness creeps across the swamp. Hovey Lake, Indiana’s only cypress swamp, pro-
tected as a wildlife refuge, greets visitors with night sounds common to the uncommon 1,400-
acre environment. Offering a different set of treats every season, the refuge attracts a wide
variety of visitors during hunting, fishing, and bird-watching seasons.
Because the swamp is situated along the Mississippi flyway, it offers refuge to 40,000 to 50,000
waterfowl each winter. Canada geese far outnumber other waterfowl, but snow geese, blue
geese, and occasionally white-fronted geese winter there, too. Nearly every variety of duck,
diver and puddle, resides in the quiet, smaller sloughs. As a result, the swamp attracts hunters
in early winter, goose hunters to the pits and duck hunters to the blinds. The hunters’ closely
regulated success is the result of hundreds of acres of corn left standing by Posey County
farmers, who rent the rich bottom land between the lake and the river by sealed bid. The
farmers’ contracts require them to leave 25 percent of the harvest as food for the thousands of
waterfowl, encouraging them to stay. The encouragement works, much to the hunters’ delight.
In spring, however, the fishermen replace the hunters on Hovey Lake waters. Attracted by the
spring crappie run, fishermen haul in hefty stringers of slabs and return to fish for bluegill. Eve-
ning campfires turn skillets full of fresh fillets into plates full of succulent morsels. Then sunrise
sends the bass fishermen scurrying to secret waters, some to return with empty bags. One
fisherman, however, boats three, one weighing in at eight pounds two ounces. Later in the day,
a few trotlines yield spoonbill catfish, those prehistoric monsters weighing 30 pounds or more,
as long as a man is tall. In late afternoon or early evening, a jug fisherman occasionally bags
perch, catfish, or even a wily gar, long, slender, and sharp-toothed. Spring moves into summer,
and summer moves into autumn. Only then, when the lake is closed for waterfowl migration, do
the fishermen leave.
The most experienced hunters and fishermen at Hovey Lake, however, are not human. They
are avian. Boasting a greater variety of bird life than almost any other spot in Indiana, the
swamp attracts bird watchers twelve months a year from a dozen states. With powerful binocu-
lars, they scan the bald cypress trees and standing dead timber, known to attract woodpeck-
ers, including the pileated, red-headed, red-bellied, downy, and hairy. Other tree dwellers, from
grumpy-looking owls to scurrying swifts, stake out territory in the swamp growth. During the
warbler migration, the trees house whole orchestras, but the prothonotary warbler stays most
of the summer, flashing yellow among the yew-like lower branches of the cypress. Flocks of
purple martins, cowbirds, and grackles fly in and out seasonally. In the more inaccessible parts
of the swamp, great blue herons and great white egrets wade the shallows near one of the last
stands of bamboo-like cane this far north or perch high in treetops from which they can see the