Page 141 - Wordsmith A Guide to College Writing

most important factor was cost.

Topic sentence 2: After finding cars in my price range, I looked at

crash test data to find the cars that were the safest.

Topic sentence 3: Finally, I checked Consumer Reports to see

which cars were the most reliable.

Exercise 3-8 Using Emphatic Order

Develop a thesis statement and topic sentences on two of the
following four topics. Use emphatic order for one of your chosen topics

and reverse emphatic order for the other.

1. Why are people afraid of aging?

2. What do you hope to accomplish within the next five years?
3. What skills—academic or nonacademic—should everyone

have?

4. People usually regard anger as destructive and unproductive.

Is anger ever useful?

Your Answers

Emphatic Order
Thesis

Topic sentence 1 (least important idea)

Topic sentence 2 (second most important idea)