Thirty-First Class Period: Connecting the Topic Sentence & Commentary

Mr. Stone lectured about relationship between the topic sentence and commentary. He reminded students that an essay's thesis consists of the paper's topic and the author's viewpoint. Each body paragraph's topic sentence consists of a subtopic and the author's viewpoint. The author's viewpoint expressed in each body paragraph should clearly relate to the topic and viewpoint of the essay's thesis. When does a writer develop his/her viewpoint?/ When should a writer develop his/her viewpoint? An author's viewpoint on a topic typically comes after prolonged thinking on the topic and its subtopics. Following a line of inductive thought, the writer experiences/examines the specific details, expresses/exchanges dialogue analyzing/interpreting this data, which ultimately leads to a conclusion or generalization. This generalization typically becomes a writer's viewpoint. Other times, a writer through previous experience or cultural influence comes with a predisposed bias/viewpoint. This generalization is expressed/tested against specific details. The process of writing may lead a writer to reconsider his/her previous/original conclusions. In the case of the film analysis assignment for this class, most students have never seen the 1947 film version of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. The student's viewing of the movie provided them with a series of specific details which through reflection and discussion they concluded a generally positive/negative viewpoint of the film. This general viewpoint becomes the thesis of the student's film review essay. The aspects of the film (humor, casting, plot structure, etc.) that caused the writer's positive/negative viewpoint of the film become the subtopics of the essay. Each subtopic along with the author's viewpoint becomes the topic sentence of a body paragraph. A student supports the viewpoint expressed in each body paragraph's topic sentence by providing three examples (concrete details) from the ffilm. The writer clarifies the meaning of his/her topic sentence's viewpoint and the overall viewpoint of the essay through the commentary (analysis, interpretation, opinion, etc.) written about each example/concrete detail provided. Mr. Stone emphasized the need to focus on a single subtopic in each body paragraph. He warned students about the dangers of confusing readers by expressing more than one viewpoint in each paragraph's topic sentence. Repetition of the key word of the paragraph's viewpoint or use of synonyms helps readers to see the connection between each paragraph's topic sentence and the commentary provided about each supporting detail. Homework: Students need to draft their first body paragraph for their film essay. This draft should be typed from the ideas written on the expository writing body paragraph prewriting table. Students should make revisions as they draft.