3C. Body Paragraphs

What is the Purpose of Body Paragraphs?

 

Body paragraphs work together to logically discuss your synthesis and analysis of sources. The body paragraphs support your thesis and unravel your overall conclusions about your research.

What Should be Included in Body Paragraphs?

 

Here are some guiding questions to help you draft the body of your Literature Review:

Decorative

Clear Organization

  1. Does your organization method match the purpose of your Literature Review?
  2. Can your material be arranged chronologically, thematically, or along the lines of debate?
  3. Does the placement of each paragraph contribute to your Literature Review's logic and clarity?
  4. Do your paragraphs work together to create a cohesive argument?
  • Decide on an organization method and stick with it.
  • Use clear topic sentences.
  • Sequence body paragraphs in a logical way.
  • Use reverse outlining techniques to ensure your body paragraphs not only fit together, but also collectively integrate your research and findings.

Headings

  1. Do your headings match the content of your body paragraphs?
  2. Are your headings succinct?
  3. Do you have enough content to warrant a heading?
  4. Does the order of your headings contribute to the overall logic of your Literature Review?
  • Make sure you have more than one heading if you plan on using headings at all.
  • Write your headings as a phrase instead of as an independent clause.
  • Avoid wordiness while crafting your heading.
  • Refer to your style guide for formatting requirements, such as bolding, capitalizing, and italicizing.
Decorative

Body

  1. Does your paragraph have a topic sentence?
  2. Do you include supporting evidence?
  3. Do you analyze and discuss your evidence?
  4. Do your paragraphs concentrate on only one point each?
  5. Does any information belong in other paragraphs?
  • Avoid repetition and redundancy within your paragraphs. Aim to extend and explain rather than to restate.
  • Your topic sentence should make a claim that contributes to your thesis statement.
  • Vary the stylistic construction of your topic sentences. For example, if your previous paragraph began with "Researchers have found...," then your next paragraph should not begin with that same phrase.
  • Use precise words in your topic sentence. Avoid expletives and vague pronouns.
Decorative

Evidence

  1. Does your paragraph contain sufficient evidence to support your claim?
  2. Do you explain how your evidence supports your claim?
  3. Is the amount of evidence you incorporate appropriate to the amount of analysis you provide?
  4. Have you used evidence and analysis from your Matrix?
  5. Does your evidence fit with the content of your paragraph while also building your argument?
  • Introduce facts seamlessly.
  • Avoid listing facts without explaining them.
  • Balance your analysis with your evidence.
  • Avoid relying too heavily on a limited number of sources.
  • Rather than treating a source individually, treat it in relation to other sources.
  • Place your evidence so that it displays a logical progression.
Decorative

Paraphrasing

  1. Have you selected the appropriate method to integrate evidence (e.g., paraphrase, quotation, summary)?
  2. Have you properly cited your paraphrase, quotation, or summary?
  3. Have you used proper punctuation to integrate your quotations?
  4. Does your quotation, paraphrase, or summary grammatically fit within your sentence?
  5. Have you accurately represented ideas that you are paraphrasing or summarizing?
  6. Have you treated your quotations, paraphrases, or summaries with academic integrity?
  7. Have you introduced your paraphrase, summary, or quotation to the reader using signal words?
  • Input citation information as you write to not lose track of sources.
  • Use verb tenses to contextualize your evidence and analysis.
  • Consult your style guide for quotation and citation formatting.
  • Revisit the purpose of your Literature Review while deciding when to paraphrase, summarize, or quote.
  • Read sentences that contain quoted material out loud. If the sentence is awkward, adjust the punctuation and grammar to better integrate the material.

Incorporating Your Authentic Voice: Paraphrase and Summary Strategies

 

Integrate evidence into your writing by signalling a paraphrase or summary is coming. You can do this by attributing the scholar at the beginning, middle, or end of the sentence and using a signal or reporting verb.

 

Example 1

Chambers et al. (1997) and Holeton et al. (2011) shows that Canadian marine environments are susceptible to the adverse effects posed by urban effluents.

Decorative

 

Refer to Module 4: In-Text Citations of the APA Style course

 

Example 2

Research demonstrates that Canadian marine environments are susceptible to the adverse effects posed by urban effluents (Chambers et al., 1997; Holeton et al., 2011).

 

Signal verbs indicate what you think about the information, arguments, or research being paraphrased or summarized. Use the table below to help guide your use of verbs:

 
Examples of Signal/Reporting Verbs
PositiveNegativeNeutral
finds claims states
shows implies reports
demonstrates assumes studies
 

Guiding Strategies

 
Decorative

Strategy #1

Summarizing is the first step to paraphrasing appropriately because it ensures you understand the material:

  1. Read
  2. Write main ideas without looking at text
  3. Check accuracy of ideas
  4. Compare summary to original text and pay attention to same words: place quotations (" ") if necessary
  5. Cite accordingly
Decorative

Strategy #2

Replace words with synonyms:

  • Use a thesaurus in conjunction with a dictionary
  • Not all synonyms are equal
  • Use words you know
  • Do not use synonyms for specialist terms (e.g., insulin, hippocampus)
Decorative

Strategy #3

Modify parts of speech (this may require you to change the sentence structure):

  • Noun
    • satisfaction to satisfied (noun to adjective)
  • Verb
    • indicating to indication (verb to noun)
  • Adverb
    • Pharmacist-administered flu vaccination to administration of vaccines by pharmacists (adverb to noun)
  • Adjective
    • injection technique to technique used to inject (adjective to noun)
Decorative

Strategy #4

Change the sentence structure:

  • Order of words
  • Shorten sentences (number of clauses)
  • Types of clauses in one sentence
  • Linking words
  • Change from active to passive and vice versa
    • Passive = to be + past participle
    • Active = subject + verb
      • e.g., Plant seeds are dispersed by wind. (passive)
      • e.g., Wind disperses plant seeds. (active)

Example Body Paragraph

 
While there is little doubt that extracurricular opportunities at U of W are a positive and critical component of students' overall development, providing students with time management skills is equally important 1.  One only needs to look at past alumni to see the validity of this claim 2. As famous alum, Harry Wright states: "I sometimes overdid it with extracurricular activities when I was at U of W, missing out on valuable academic opportunities. Fortunately, I buckled down in my senior year and managed a "C" average, and things have worked out fine since" (Paige 227 ) 3. In this example, Harry Wright is arguing that the detrimental effects of excessive extracurricular involvement can be rectified in the senior year of university 4.  Even though Harry Wright is certainly correct when he implies that it is never too late for students to try to raise their GPA, it is probably better for students to attempt to balance academic and other activities early in their university career. Also, Wright assumes that all students can achieve what they want with a "C" average, but many students need higher GPAs in order to apply for professional school, graduate school, and entry-level jobs 5. Although extracurricular activities are often a positive and critical component of student life at U of W, administrators should consider providing a time management education and awareness course for all incoming students. After all, not every U of W graduate will be as lucky as Harry Wright. If UW students are going to succeed in business and higher education, they need to first understand the importance of time management 6.

(Adapted from The Writing and Communication Centre, University of Waterloo)

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Insert topic sentence: State the main idea of your paragraph and its relevance to your thesis/argument.
Introduce your evidence: Integrate your evidence by identifying the source and summarizing the context.
Insert evidence: Use appropriate evidence to support your claim. The evidence can be in the form of a quote, example, fact, statistic, etc.
Unpack evidence: Explain what the evidence means and how it connects to your argument.
Interpret evidence: Explain why and how the evidence is significant to your paragraph and/or your overall argument.
Insert conclusion: Provide a sentence that reasserts how your paragraph contributes to the development of your argument as a whole.