Writing / 31Ohio River. In winter, the bald eagles soar among the thousands of geese and ducks, surely a
testimony to the value of this wildlife sanctuary.
Boasting none of the amenities of modern campgrounds, Hovey Lake nevertheless attracts
90,000 visitors a year, visitors who hunt and fish and watch the birds. They come to appreciate
the swamp for what it is, a precious ecological system struggling to survive man’s intrusion.
They hear the owls, the whip-poor-wills, the frogs, even the mosquitoes, and know that in the
chain of this uncommon swamp life, every link must stay intact.ANALYSIS of SAMPLE MULTI-PARAGRAPH PAPER
The sample illustrates the basic characteristics of the five-paragraph theme. Note the
following specifics, broken down by paragraph.
In the first paragraph:
• The introduction uses an attention-getter to set the scene. The reader will
readily identify with the lure of the swamp.
• The thesis sentence appears as the last sentence, to which the paragraph has
led smoothly.
• The thesis sentence names the topics of the three body paragraphs in the order
in which they will be discussed.In the second paragraph:
• A long introduction and series of transitional devices precede the fourth, the
topic sentence.
• Supporting details explain why the hunters come and are successful.
• The concluding sentence refers back to the topic sentence and ties together the
ideas in the paragraph.In the third paragraph:
• The first sentence serves as both a transition and a topic sentence.
• The supporting details show the kinds of fishing and the kinds of fish without
giving the reader the feeling of reading a list.
• The concluding sentence shows the fishermen leaving.In the fourth paragraph:
• Two sentences of transition tie the description of hunters and fishermen to that
of the birds.
• The third sentence serves as the topic sentence.
• Supporting details, piled one after another, emphasize variety of bird life
without repeating details about waterfowl.