How to write an Apple

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How to write an Apple (paragraph) Do you ever
feel like you are going to explode when the
teacher asks you to write a paragraph.     Do
you feel your heart pounding or your face getting
red if your teacher tells you to write a GOOD
paragraph?                                      
      Don't despair...here is a way to do it
painlessly and with excellent results. To
begin......consider the apple
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• Don't despair...here is a way to do it painlessly
  and with excellent results.
• To begin......consider the apple
• Using "short" words list at least five things you
  already know about the apple.
• Your list might look like this
• Apples
• eat them   
• different colors   
• grow on trees   
• great in a pie   
• some have worms

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Now S T R E T C H the words on your list into at
least five sentences.   You can eat an
apple. Apples come in different colors. Apples
grow on trees. I ate an apple pie once. Sometimes
an apple has a worm in it.   Now let's put the
sentences in a paragraph! First, think about
which sentence you want to come first, second,
third etc... How about this order? Apples come
in different colors.    Apples grow on trees. 
  You can eat an apple.    I ate an apple pie. 
  Sometimes an apple has a worm in it.
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Ok, let's try it out! Let's connect the sentences
into a paragraph with indention, capital letters
at the beginning of each sentence and a
punctuation mark at the end of each sentence.
Well, our sentences are in a paragraph form. We
have indented and remembered to use punctuation,
but it isn't a good paragraph yet.
Consider what you remember about
paragraphs! Paragraphs have three parts like a
present   The box is like a topic sentence. The
topic sentence "holds" the detail sentences
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The detail sentences tell the reader information
about the topic. Our topic is "apples" so each
detail sentence should tell the reader more
information about apples.    
      I don't think we have a topic sentence
yet, do you? "Apples come in different colors."
seems more like a detail sentence to me. A
topic sentence should introduce the entire
paragraph to the reader.
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  How about this   Let me tell you what I
know about apples.   That seems like a better
topic sentence, doesn't it?    

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I noticed that two of the detail sentences start
with the same word. I think we can change them
into something more interesting by combining the
two simple sentences into one compound sentence
using the conjunction "and" like this
Apples come in different colors and they grow on
trees.
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Now look at detail sentences 2 and 3. Did you
notice that the verb "eat" is used in a present
tense (eat) in 2 sentence and past tense "ate"
in 3? As a good paragraph writer you have to be
careful to make sure that you always have "verb
agreement" throughout your paragraph. In other
words, you have to make sure that everything in
the paragraph takes place in the same time zone
past, present or future. I think we will choose
to make our paragraph in the present tense, so
that means we have to make a small change to
detail sentence 3.  
I ate an apple pie present tense I like to
eat apple pie.  

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I think we can combine those two small sentences
into a nice complex sentence now with just a
little thought. You can eat an apple. I like to
eat apple pie. You can eat an fresh apple, but I
like to eat them in apple pie. Think What kind
of apple pie? Dutch? hot? homemade? These are
adjectives that will make our sentence SHOW not
TELL the reader what we want to say! You can eat
an fresh apple, but I like to eat them in
homemade apple pie.
You can eat an fresh apple... Wait a minute...
what is wrong with that? It sounds funny.
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Did you remember the article rule for "an"? An
is an article (part of speech). You use "an" in
front of words which begin with a vowel. Use the
article "a" in front of words that begin with a
consonant like "fresh". so..... You can eat a
fresh apple, but I like to eat them in apple pie.
Now, let's have a look at sentence 4. We need
to do a little work on it too. Let's rework the
verb "has" to make it an action verb instead of a
being verb.
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Sometimes a worm is living in the apple. Good
job! The words "is living" are present tense,
just like the rest of the sentences in our
paragraph! CHECK IT OUT!

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Finally, we are ready for the Conclusion or
Closing Sentence. It doesn't matter whether you
call the last sentence of a paragraph a
"conclusion" or "closing" sentence. they both
mean the same thing. This is the end of your
paragraph and you are letting the reader know it
is the end. Do you remember the "paragraph box"
from above? Paragraphs are like boxes. They have
three parts a topic sentence (which is like the
box), detail sentences (which are the present
inside the box), and the conclusion or closing
sentence (which is like a bow that ties the whole
thing together). Our paragraph has a great "box"
or topic sentence Let me tell you what I know
about apples. Our paragraph has a great set of
"presents" or detail sentences inside the box
Apples come in different colors and they grow on
trees. You can eat a fresh apple, but I like to
eat them in a homemade apple pie. Sometimes a
worm is living in the apple. We need a great
conclusion sentence here is a good clue...look
at the topic sentence and think about how to
"tie" it to the conclusion sentence.
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WE DID IT! We created a paragraph with good
sentences from ideas that we thought about in our
own head! The last part of writing our sentence
is easy. Remember to indent the
paragraph. Remember to capitalize each new
sentence. Remember to end each sentence with the
proper punctuation symbol.
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Let me tell you what I know about             
          pples come in different
                and they grow on
                                 . You can eat
a fresh apple, but I like to eat them in
homemade apple                    . Sometimes a
                      is living in the apple .
These are just a few things you should know
about                 .