Paragraph Writing Made Easy
January 24, 2015 by David John Jones, Jr. |
One of the most important things you can do as a parent or teacher of an elementary aged student is facilitate his/her development as a writer. As a dad and teacher, I teach my students and kids to use TS/DE/CS as a format to organize and strengthen their paragraphs.
TS: Topic Sentence
- The topic sentence of a paragraph is the main idea.
DE: Details & Explanations
- Details of a paragraph are the main points that support the main idea or topic sentence.
- Explanations are sentences that support or develop the supporting details in a paragraph.
CS: Concluding Sentence
- The concluding sentence of a paragraph is a paraphrased main idea restated.
Teaching your kids or students to use TS/DE/CS will help them to organize and develop stronger paragraphs. Encouraging them to include transitions when moving from one detail to the next will also strengthen their written expression.
