Section One From Paragraph to Essay

You have learned how to write a good paragraph in the previous chapter.Now you will learn how to organize paragraphs into a good essay.

As you know, a paragraph consists of three parts: the topic sentence, developing sentences, and the concluding sentence.Similarly, an essay is made up of three parts: the introductory paragraph, the body paragraphs, and the concluding paragraph.Therefore, if you can write a good paragraph, you can write a good essay, too.

Read the following paragraph about the sinking of the Titanic , and identify the three parts that a good paragraph usually has.

Three reasons may have accounted for the sinking of the Titanic.First, the crew was insufficiently trained for such an emergency.Many of the lifeboats left the ship only half full while others could have taken several more people.When the Titanicdisappeared into the ocean, only one lifeboat went back to pick up survivors.What's worse, the ship was not equipped with enough lifeboats.Although hundreds of millions of dollars had been spent in decorating the ship, this most luxurious liner afloat was lacking in the vital essentials of lifesaving equipment.But worst of all, international radio service was seriously inefficient.Within ten miles of the Titanicwas another ship, the Californian.When the Titanicsent out emergency calls near midnight, the radio operator of the Californianhad already gone to bed.At that time, there were no international maritime regulations requiring a radio operator to be on duty twenty four hours a day.Hopefully, this kind of tragedy will never happen again.

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Now look at the following diagram to see how a paragraph such as the one above can be expanded into an essay.The topic sentence of the paragraph goes to the introductory paragraph of the essay.The three major developing sentences of the paragraph are developed further in each of the three body paragraphs in the essay.Finally, the concluding sentence of the paragraph is expanded into the concluding paragraph of the essay.

Mention should be made that the number of body paragraphs will vary greatly from essay to essay.The diagram above shows that this particular essay has three body paragraphs, but other essays may contain a different number of body paragraphs.The number of body paragraphs depends entirely on how complex the topic of the essay is.In this book, however, we mainly focus on how to write a good five-paragraph essay which is the basic organizational structure of an English language essay；that is, we will mainly learn how to write an essay with three body paragraphs in it.

Now read the following essay, which is an expansion of the paragraph about the sinking of the Titanic.

Unsinkable or Unthinkable?

On the evening of April 14, 1912, on its maiden voyage, the“unsinkable”luxury liner, the Titanic , struck an iceberg in the freezing waters of the North Atlantic.Within a few hours the ship sank, taking with it some fifteen hundred lives.Why did so many people die, particularly when there was another ship within ten miles? Subsequent investigation by national and international agencies showed that three reasons may have accounted for the sinking of the Titanic : an insufficiently trained crew, limited lifesaving facilities, and poor telecommunication services.

One reason was that the crew was insufficiently trained for such an emergency.In the face of grave danger, the crew of the Titanicwas evidently not able to meet the demands of the situation.Many of the lifeboats left the ship only half full while others could have taken several more people.According to the investigation, passengers were not informed of their imminent (即将来临的) danger upon impact with the iceberg, and officers deliberately withheld (不承认) their knowledge of the certain sinking of the ocean liner.Therefore, when lifesaving maneuvers (行动) finally began, many passengers were unprepared for the seriousness of the moment.Further indication of poor crew leadership was that when the Titanicdisappeared into the ocean, only one lifeboat went back to pick up survivors.

Another reason was that the ship was not equipped with enough lifeboats.Although hundreds of millions of dollars had been spent in decorating the ship with palm gardens, Turkish baths, and even squash courts, this most luxurious liner afloat was lacking in the vital essentials of lifesaving equipment.Records reveal that the Titaniccarried only sixteen wooden lifeboats, capable of carrying fewer than twelve hundred persons.With a passenger and crew list exceeding twenty two hundred, there were at least a thousand individuals unprovided for in a possible sea disaster-even if every lifeboat was filled to capacity.

Undoubtedly, however, the primary reason was that international radio service was seriously inefficient.Within ten miles of the Titanicwas another ship, the Californian , which could have reached the Titanicbefore she sank and rescued all of her passengers.When the Titanicsent out emergency calls near midnight, the radio operator of the Californianhad already gone to bed.A crew member, however, was still in the radio room and picked up the signals.Not realizing that they were distress signals from a ship nearby, the crew member decided not to wake up the radio operator to receive the message.At that time there were no international maritime regulations requiring a radio operator to be on duty twenty four hours a day.

Therefore it can be seen that the great Titanicsank as a result of its unqualified crew, its inadequate number of lifeboats, and an imperfect international radio system.Hopefully, this kind of tragedy will never happen again.

In the essay above, the reader is carefully led through a well-organized pattern of thought.The writer's three main points are clearly stated in the thesis statement of the introductory paragraph, then each of these points is developed in detail in each of the body paragraphs.Finally, the writer's three main points are rephrased in the concluding paragraph.

Now, let's learn how to write each part of the essay: the introductory paragraph, the body paragraphs, and the concluding paragraph.