how to know a narrow sentence from a broad one?

[bubuna]

Hello everybody,

I have been studying how to write paragraphs. I have read several books and all of them advise that the topic sentence in a paragraph should nither be 'too narrow' nor 'too broad'. I find it very difficult to how to know what makes a topic sentence narrow or broad. For example: In one of the examples of a narrative paragraph 'aunt Fanny is amazing' is an acceptable topic sentence while 'my dog is really interesting' has been criticized as being vague. I am really confused and can not understand when a topic sentence becomes vague, narrow broad or specific. please help!!
keeping in mind the confusions and questions I have about this subject, I guess this thread is going to be at least 5 km long.]

thank you all for the trouble you guys take in order to help the non native speakers of english. God bless you all!!

[John Ritson]

In article <347eebec-1872-41a1...@googlegroups.com>,
bubuna <perfe...@hotmail.com> writes

I agree that the examples don't seem helpful.
The second example is bad because using one vague word - "really" - as
an intensifier of another vague word - "interesting" - is not a good
idea, certainly in writing as opposed to informal speech.

What is amazing about Aunt Fanny? To be "narrow" this needs to be
specified. Is it some physical attribute or ability? Is it an
intellectual or moral quality? Is it something in her life history?

"Aunt Fanny speaks twelve languages" would be narrow, as would "my dog
is from a very rare breed".

--
John Ritson

[Don Phillipson]

"bubuna" <perfe...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:347eebec-1872-41a1...@googlegroups.com...

<<
I have been studying how to write paragraphs. I have read several books and
all of them advise that the topic sentence in a paragraph should nither be
'too narrow' nor 'too broad'. I find it very difficult to how to know what
makes a topic sentence narrow or broad. For example: In one of the examples
of a narrative paragraph 'aunt Fanny is amazing' is an acceptable topic
sentence while 'my dog is really interesting' has been criticized as being
vague. I am really confused and can not understand when a topic sentence
becomes vague, narrow broad or specific. please help!!
>>

The first point (which you may have misunderstood) is that narrow
and broad are relative concepts, not absolute. They are not properties
of specimen sentences or paragraphs: they indicate differences
between two or more sentences of paragraphs: i.e. specimen A is
better than specimen B.

Secondly the specimens you compare should be chosen from
real writing in real contexts (whether books or periodicals or
letters.) Synthetic examples invented by teachers are
seldom realistic or helpful.

No particular method tells us " how to write paragraphs." This is
not a real object of study. Writing is the process by which we
create or transmit ideas and information, and we all want to
write better, i.e. more effectively. How much better is a
comparative characteristic, not an absolute one.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

[Django Cat]

Don Phillipson wrote:

Well... yes, it is. In fact it sounds like like Bubuna is following an
English for Academic Purposes course, as aimed at non-native speakers
who will be following an English medium course at unversity, and who
have to learn to write assignments in English. On such courses we do
teach a structure for organising paragraphs, where each one begins with
a 'topic sentence'. This basically sets out in the first sentence of
each paragraph what the topic of the paragraph will be; subsequent
sentences within the paragraph provide further evidence, examples or
discussion. As a writing methodology it's a bit clunky, but it does
encourage students to approach building an assignment systematically.

I'd be interested in hearing some more about the books Bubuna has read
which talk about how a topic sentence can be 'too broad' or 'too
narrow'; as Bubuna says, there's not a lot of value in saying this
unless the book also explains what makes for 'too broad' or 'too
narrow'. (I can guess - too broad means there's actually more than one
topic identified which should be split across more than one paragraph,
too narrow something which doesn't deserve a paragraph to itself). And,
pace Aunty Fanny and her dog, those aren't very useful examples.

DC

--

[Don Phillipson]

"Django Cat" <nota...@address.com> wrote in message
news:JYsGu.418$ZI7...@fx10.am4...

>> No particular method tells us " how to write paragraphs." This is
>> not a real object of study.
>
> Well... yes, it is. In fact it sounds like like Bubuna is following an
> English for Academic Purposes course, as aimed at non-native speakers
> who will be following an English medium course at unversity, and who
> have to learn to write assignments in English. On such courses we do
> teach a structure for organising paragraphs, where each one begins with
> a 'topic sentence'. This basically sets out in the first sentence of
> each paragraph what the topic of the paragraph will be; subsequent
> sentences within the paragraph provide further evidence, examples or
> discussion. As a writing methodology it's a bit clunky, but it does
> encourage students to approach building an assignment systematically.

This amplification:
(1) resembles for DC's students the classic American method for
writing newspaper copy;
(2) invokes without actually mentioning them the special criteria
of writing for "Academic Purposes." This is another distinct genre,
well documented in Robert Day's How to Write and Publish a
Scientific Paper (several editions since 1970) most obviously
identified by its preference for narrative in the passive voice.
Thus the researcher may not write "Jack made an original
suggestion I had not thought of, so I tried inverting the process . . ."
because scientists do not want to read that. They want:
"It was then proposed that the process be inverted so the
apparatus was . . ."
(2b) Research report writing attempts to square the circle.
Its ideal form is a factual description of a new natural
phenomenon, footnoted wherever possible to prior published
knowledge. This is not a chronology or narrative. But despite
attempts to hide it narrative constantly creeps back into any
report of a scientific discovery. Editors and readers both
remain uncomfortable about this: their main defensive weapon
is skepticism so they mistrust literary qualities as probably deceptive.
(3) Case 1 may be moribund or extinct, so far as new
technologies of electronic publication dissolve or evade the
demands of hot metal type which in part govern the American
tradition of how to write newspaper copy.
(4) These differences confirm we should not equate the
requirements of special-purpose publication with general
guidelines for how to write paragraphs.
(4b) Plenty of other skills for "applied writing" may also
be taught in class, e.g. how to write a dunning letter that
effectively prompts someone to pay a debt, how to write
a business prospectus that will tempt people to invest,
how to write a Letter to the Editor that your local paper
will want to publish, etc. For each genre, the agreed purpose
outweighs the norms of style and sometimes even grammar too.

[Anton Shepelev]

bubuna:

> I have been studying how to write paragraphs. I
> have read several books and all of them advise
> that the topic sentence in a paragraph should
> nither be 'too narrow' nor 'too broad'. I find it
> very difficult to how to know what makes a topic
> sentence narrow or broad.

This is a matter of the volume of a menaing and the
amount of information -- two complementary quanti-
ties. If you have a basic, even intuitive, notion
of set theory, you'll easily understand that the
narrower part of a set one needs to identify, the
more information one must provide.

For example, the sentence "This is a cat" gives lit-
tle information and is broad, because just any cat
in the world fits. But if we supply more informa-
tion, as in "This is a black cat", the meaning be-
comes narrower because only black cats qualify, and
there are much fewer black cats than cats.

Consider also this problem for children: which group
is more numerous: all cats except those cats who are
not Toms, or all Toms except those Toms who are not
cats?

J.C. Nesfield explains this concept in his "Manual
of English Grammar and Composition" (1905), although
he applies it to adjectives rather that sentecnes,
to which it can be safely extrapolated:

An adjective is a word that enlarges the mean-
ing and narrows the application of a noun.

Enlargement of a meaning is necessarily accom-
panied by a narrowing of application. This is
a vital point. Thus the noun "house," so long
as its meaning remains unenlarged, that is, so
long as no adjective is added to it, can be
applied to an almost countless number of
things called by general name of "house." But
if I add to the noun the adjective "fourth,"
the noun so enlarged can be applied to only
one house, viz. to that house which stands
fourth in a certain row or terrace.

Observe that when we enlarge the meaning of
"house" by adding "fourth," we do not alter
the meaning of "house." "Fourth house" means
all that "house" means, and more besides.

I believe you can download this old book without vi-
olating any law.

> For example: In one of the examples of a narrative
> paragraph 'aunt Fanny is amazing' is an acceptable

> topic sentence while 'my dog is really interest-

> ing' has been criticized as being vague.

Nut sure why. They want you either to add the dog's
name, to remove the unnecessary "really", or to be
more specific than declaring the dog interesting.
Any quality unusual for a dog will make it interest-
ing in a sense, so why not name it forthwith?

My dog Benny employs an interesting tactic
when chasing cats.

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