In this section you will learn how to organize supporting statements
or arguments in a paragraph. You will learn that it is important to
use connectives to list your arguments and to signal the relations
between them.
Read the following text carefully
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The government should provide more financial assistance to
parents who use childcare. Childcare centers may assist children
in their early development. They give children an opportunity
to mix with other children and to develop social skills at an
early age. Parents and children need to spend some time apart.
Children become less dependent on their parents and parents
themselves are less stressed and more effective care-givers
when there are periods of separation. Parents who cannot go
to work because they don't have access to childcare facilities
cannot contribute to the national economy. They are not able
to utilize their productive skills and do not pay income tax.
Government support for childcare services assists individual
families and is important for the economic well-being of the
whole nation. |
This text consists of 1 main thesis, 3 supporting arguments
and 1 conclusion.
Print this page out and use a highlighter or pen to answer the following
questions:
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a. |
What is the main thesis? |
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Circle or highlight the main thesis. Then write "main thesis'
in the margin next to it. |
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b. |
What are the three supporting arguments? |
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Circle or highlight each of the three supporting arguments.
Then write "argument 1", "argument 2" and "argument 3" next
to each one. (Note: each of these consists of more than one
sentence) |
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c. |
What is the conclusion? |
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Circle or highlight the conclusion and write "conclusion" in
the margin next to it |
The following three sentences each add further information to the three
supporting arguments. Your task is to add the sentences to the text.
You will first need to work out which of the three supporting arguments
they relate to.
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a. |
Recent studies indicate that the parent-child relationship
can be improved by the use of high-quality childcare facilities. |
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b. |
A whole range of learning occurs in childcare centers. |
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c. |
Non-working parents can become a drain on the tax system through
dependent spouse and other rebates. |
You have seen that we can use different connectives
to list the supporting arguments in the text. These listing connectives
are:
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Firstly |
This can be used for the first supporting argument |
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Secondly |
These can be used for any further supporting arguments (except,
of course, for "Secondly" which can only be used for the second) |
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Furthermore |
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Moreover |
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In addition |
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Finally |
This can be used for the last supporting argument. Note: this
is not a concluding connective and also you can use "Furthermore",
"Moreover" or "In addition" for the last argument if you wish |
Mark the beginning of the three supporting arguments with connectives
from the above list
Three common concluding connectives are:
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In conclusion |
These all carry roughly the same meaning. They should be used
to indicate that you are making final statements that cover
all the supporting arguments in a very general way. |
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In summary |
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Thus |
Mark the conclusion of your argument with a concluding connective.
These connectives have almost the same meaning and both can be used
in the following situations:
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1. |
To connect a more detailed statement with a preceding general
statement |
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Example: Today is very warm. In
fact (or Indeed)
it is 35 degrees Celsius |
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2. |
To connect a statement which is more factual and exact with a
preceding statement that is more debatable and general |
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Example: The Internet is very popular in Australia. Indeed
(or In fact), Australia has
the highest proportion of Internet users per head of population
of any country in the world. |
Find three places in the text where you could use "In fact" or "Indeed".
For more practice on using "In fact" and "Indeed", click
here.
The structure of the text is now well marked by connectives so that
the reader can clearly identify the main thesis, supporting arguments
and conclusions.
You can also use paragraphs to mark the structure of the text so that
it is even more clear and easy to read.
Mark the places in the text where you would
start a new paragraph with a large (NP) which stands for "new
paragraph"
Then finally write out a final draft of the text on childcare. It should
look like this.
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