45
STUDY AND WRITING SKILLS
5.4
WRITING SKILLS
WRITING PARAGRAPHS
5
Discuss these questions with a partner.
1
What is a paragraph?
2
How long are paragraphs?
3
Why do we use paragraphs when we write?
6
Look back at the texts on pages 38 and 40. How
many paragraphs are there?
7
Discuss these questions with a partner.
1
Are there any volcanoes in your country? Are they
famous?
2
Have you ever been up a volcano? What do you
remember about it?
3
If not, would you like to go up a volcano? Why?/
Why not?
4
We use special terms to talk about volcanoes. Do
you know what these words mean?
active cone dormant erupt an eruption
8
Paragraph organisation
Read this paragraph about a
volcano in Iceland. Then put the points below (a–h) in
the order they appear in the paragraph.
10
a
Topic sentences
The topic sentence of a
paragraph tells us the topic of the paragraph. It is
usually the first sentence of the paragraph. What is the
topic sentence in the paragraph in Exercise 8?
10
b
Look at these topic sentences. What information
do you think we can find in the rest of the paragraph?
Think of two or three points.
1
Russia is the world’s largest country.
2
My favourite photo shows a family holiday when I
was about ten years old.
11
Reference words
Look at the use of
it, its
and
it’s
in the paragraph in Exercise 8. Then improve this
paragraph about Mount Fuji by using
it
,
its
and
it’s
.
a
how dangerous it is
e
location
b
effects of recent eruption
f
name
1
c
height
g
size comparison
d
date of recent eruption
h
active or dormant?
9
How is the information in the paragraph organised?
Put these points in the correct order. Why is this a
good order?
a
the eruption
b
general information about the volcano
c
comparison with other volcanoes
12
Use these notes to write a paragraph about the
volcano Mauna Loa. Think about the best order for
the points, then join them up, and use reference
words (
it
,
its, it’s
).
13
Write a paragraph about a natural feature in your
country, or a country you know well, e.g. a mountain,
lake or river.
Eyjafjallajökull
(pronounced: eh-a-fyat-la-yo-kutl)
is an active volcano near the south coast of Iceland.
It’s 1,666m high. This means it’s not in fact one of
the largest volcanoes on the island. Also, it’s not
as dangerous as its neighbour,
Katla
, about 25km
away. But in 2010, it erupted and caused a lot of
problems for air traffic in Europe.
Mount Fuji is perhaps the world’s most famous
volcano. Mount Fuji is about 100km from Toyko,
in Japan. Mount Fuji is 3,776m high, and Mount
Fuji’s shape is almost perfect – a cone with quite
steep sides. Mount Fuji is a dormant volcano
which last erupted in 1707.
Location: Hawaii, Pacific Ocean
Height: 4,170 metres
Name: Mauna Loa
Last eruption: 1984
Active or dormant: active
Shape: quite flat
Size: largest active volcano in world
Mauna Loa
Mount Fuji
