Topic sentence
 
 
 
 
Supporting idea 1
       Unique feeling
Supporting idea 2
       Beautiful clouds
 
Supporting idea 3
       Welcoming trees
Supporting idea 4
       Rare stones
 
Concluding sentence
       Summary
              &
       Quotation
 
 
I have been to many beautiful places. The Yellow Mountain is my favorite. It is located in the southern part of Anhui Province. It is famous for its beautiful clouds, pine trees and strange stones. In July 1999, I made a trip to it. At the foot of the mountain, I could not see its top. When I reached the top, I felt I were in the heaven, high in the sky, with the clouds dancing about me. From its peak, I looked down at the lower hills, the clouds moving smoothly around them. Sometimes the hills could be clearly seen and sometimes they submerged in the vast cloud sea in a moment. It seemed to me that the famous pine trees stand on the abrupt hillside, showing their welcome to the travelers. The stones are so strange that almost each of them has a good story. They look like dogs, rabbits or even human beings. All these beautiful clouds, welcoming pine trees and strange stones gave me such a deep impression that I love the Yellow Mountain more than any beautiful places I have ever been to, as an old saying goes: One who has been to the Yellow Mountain need not go to see any other mountains.

 
Now take another student-written paragraph for example. It contains a clearly stated main idea and considerable supporting evidence.
 

                                          The Effects of Colors

Topic sentence
Supporting evidence 1
 
 
 
 
 
Supporting evidence 2
 
 
 
 
Certain colors have a profound influence on our bodies, thought, behaviors, and even strength.In general, dark colors strike us as heavy and foreboding, while light colors seem not only cheerful, but physically light as well. For example, an experiment done at Pittsburgh Paints showed that workmen had considerably more trouble lifting the light, black boxes than they did the heavy, white boxes. Reddish colors, from maroon to crimson, excite people. According to research done at the University of California in Los Angeles, the blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and a brain-waves of patients all went up when they were put in a red room. When the
 
 
Supporting evidence 3
 
 
 
 
 
 
Concluding sentence
 
 
 
 
same people were put in a blue room, all their physical indicators went down. The color blue seems to have calming effect, which invokes a mood of tranquility. This effect can even save lives. The Blackfriars Bridge, a gloomy-looking black structure over the Thames River in London, was once a favorite leaping-off point for despondent citizens. After the bridge was repainted a soothing blue, the suicide rate dropped immediately. These examples of the impact of color in our environment suggest that colors often play a major role in our lives without our conscious knowledge.
 

I.     Writing a topic sentence

 
After you have your audience in mind, have chosen your limited topic and decided your purpose, the first task of paragraph writing is writing a good topic sentence.
A good topic sentence has the following characteristics:
 
1.      It is a complete sentence expressing the main idea of the paragraph. It consists of a topic and its controlling idea. You can limit your main idea to a manageable size by either limiting a general topic to a specific one or presenting an accurate controlling idea.
 
Limiting a general topic
 
         Taxes are unnecessarily high. (a general topic)
 
         New York State sales taxes are unnecessarily high. (a limited topic)
 
Presenting an accurate controlling idea
 
              Owning a car is expensive.
convenient.
              People give many reasons forowing a car
the causes of
the steps for
the advantages of
the problems of
the precautions of
the changes to
 
2.      It usually does not begin with an interrogative word. “My college is the