Tell students to take notes as you cover the basics of writing a good paragraph: Write an interesting, engaging or compelling first sentence. Often called the topic sentence, the first sentence is crucial because it sets the direction and the tone for the sentences that follow.
Write a good, strong paragraph that shows a unity of ideas, meaning that all sentences within the paragraph should relate to one another. A good paragraph displays cohesion and flows well--moving easily from one thought to the next with transitional words and phrases.
Demonstrate how to write a paragraph with a progression of ideas. Often, but not always, this entails starting with your general topic sentence and then gradually becoming more specific with every sentence that follows.
Test every sentence in the paragraph against the topic sentence for relevance. Does every sentence amplify the topic sentence? It must. Delete any sentence that is irrelevant or that fails to advance the topic sentence with obvious purpose.
Encourage students to speak freely, volunteer ideas and make positive and polite suggestions to their classmates' topics for this group activity. Remind them that their goal as a class is to come up with not just a good paragraph but a memorable one that will serve as a model for their future writing efforts.
Take the lead and write a compelling and engaging topic sentence on the board: "I had the worst date of my life on Saturday night and will never trust my friend Robin to set me up on a blind date again."
Write two strong follow-up sentences on the board: "I watched him walk toward our table and bump and thud into almost every table along the way. As he approached our table and was about to say hello to me, he collided dead-on with a waiter and sent two dinner plates soaring into the air before they crashed onto the table next to ours."
Ask students to develop two more sentences to complete the paragraph, testing each one for unity and a progression of ideas. Expect that some students may suggest weak or seemingly irrelevant sentences: "I decided to order the chicken" or "He was a dolt" or "He didn't talk much during dinner." Remind students that as a creative exercise, there are no "wrong" ideas--only better ones.
Encourage students to amplify their answers. Suggest that some bridge words at the beginning and amplification at the end might help salvage the second idea: "To make matters worse,....he didn't talk to me much during dinner....maybe because he was so busy retrieving the knife that he kept dropping on the floor."
Help students complete the paragraph on a high note or a surprise note, if possible: "I asked to borrow his cell phone to tell my roommate that I would be home early, and as he handed the phone to me, he dropped it into the pitcher of water."
Ask students to review the entire paragraph and review it for the essential paragraph components covered in Step 1. Remind students that even though this was a fun paragraph to write, they should heed the lesson and apply it to all the paragraphs they write--from essays to research papers. (Then, in fairness to your male students, recast Step 2 from a male point of view.)