Writing Academic English 4th Edition

TheConcludingSentence

WritingTechniqueQuestions

1.Whatis themainideaofthisparagraph?Underlinethepartofthetopic

sentencethatexpressesthemainidea.

2. Whatexamplesdoesthewriterusetosupportthisidea?Putbrackets[
   aroundthem.
   3.Whatwordsandphrasesintroducetheexamples?Circlethem.

Cbapter 11 IParagraphStructure 13

LanguageandPerception

IIpossessthesamephysicalorgansforsensingthew

earing,nosesforsmelling,skinforfeeling,and

noftheworlddependstoa greatextentonthe

rdingtoa famoushypothesis^3 proposedbylingu.

Edward enjaminLeeWhorf.Theyhypothesizedthatlanguageis like

a pairofeyeglassesthroughwhich we"see"theworldina particularway.A

classicexampleof therelationshipbetweenlanguageandperceptionis theword

snow.Eskimolanguageshaveasmanyas 32 differentwordsforsnow.For

instance,theEskimoshavedifferentwordsforfallingsnow,snowontheground,

snowpackedashardasice,slushysnow,wind-drivensnow,andwhatwemight

call"cornmeal"snow.TheancientAzteclanguagesofMexico,incontrast,used

onlyonewordtomeansnow,cold,andice.Thus,iftheSapir-Whorfhypothesis

is correctandwecanperceiveonlythingsthatwehavewordsfor,theAztecs

perceivedsnow,cold,andiceasoneandthesamephenomenon.^4

3hypothesis:theorythathasnotbeenproven

(^4) phenomenon:thingorevent(plural:phenomena)
Aconcludingsentenceservestwopurposes:

1. It signalstheendoftheparagraph.


2. It leavesthereaderwiththemostimportantideastoremember.It cando
   thisintwoways:
   
   
   • Bysummmizingthemainpointsoftheparagraph
     OR
   
   
   • Byrepeatingthetopicsentenceindifferentwords
     Aparagraphdoesnotalwaysneeda concludingsentence.Forsingleparagraphs,
     especiallylongones,a concludingsentenceishelpfultothereaderbecauseitis
     a reminderoftheimportantpoints.However,a concludingsentenceisnotneeded
     foreveryparagraphina multiparagraphessay.
     Youmaywanttobeginyourconcludingsentencewithoneofthesignalsinthe
     listonpage14.Youmayalsoenda paragraphwithouta formalsignalorperhapsby
     usinganexpressionlikethoseinthecolumnontheright.
   
   
   
   

MODEE
Paragraph
Supportedwith
Examp'es