Unit 14, Composition 329Copyright © by Glencoe/McGraw-Hill
Composition
Lesson 113
Paragraph OrderingJust as you needed to choose an order for your sentences, you need to choose an
order for the paragraphs in your writing. When you are revising, check that each
sentence tells something about the topic of that paragraph. Cross out any
sentences that do not. Be sure your paragraphs follow one another in a way that
makes sense. Finally, check that you have transition words between the last
sentence of one paragraph and the first sentence of the following paragraph.
FIRST DRAFT:
The second day we went to the beach. The sun came out, the water was
cool, and we had a great time. The sky was blue. We made huge sand castles.
We went swimming and waterskiing.
The first day of our vacation was a big disappointment.We had to stay
indoors. It rained all day long. There were thunder and lightning, too.
The weather was perfect the rest of the week. I’m glad I didn’t go home after
the first day!
REVISED DRAFT:
The first day of our vacation was a big disappointment. It rained all day
long. There were thunder and lightning, too, so we had to stay indoors.
The second day we went to the beach. The sky was blue, and the sun came
out. First we made huge sand castles; then we went swimming and
waterskiing. We had a great time.
The weather was perfect the rest of the week. I’m glad I didn’t go home after
the first day!Exercise 1 Write 1, 2,or 3 in the blank in front of each paragraph to show how the
three paragraphs should be ordered.(^3) Finally, Aunt Susan offered to bake some of her famous cherry pies. With all
that food to sell, we were certain to raise enough money to go to Toronto.
(^1) My soccer team was invited to play in a tournament in Toronto, Canada.
Unfortunately, we did not have enough money to rent a bus to take us there. We
really wanted to go, so we decided to have a bake sale to raise some of the money.