Considering Topics: A Strategy to Strengthen Focus

You can do this activity with the highlighter feature in your word processor or with actual highlighters on a printed copy of your paper.

Note: You can have split sentences (sentences that have more than one topic in them). In those cases, highlight the parts of the sentence in different colors accordingly.

Part 1: Highlighting

1. Identify the paragraph’s topic sentence and highlight it in one color.
2. Look at the next sentence (or the first sentence in the paragraph if the topic sentence isn’t the first sentence), and decide if it’s on the same topic. If it is, highlight it in the same color. If it isn’t, highlight it in a different color.
3. Continue highlighting this way, matching the highlight color to the sentence topic, until all of the sentences in the paragraph are marked.

Part 2: Analyzing Your Highlighting

• If your paragraph is all one color, then you have a well-focused paragraph.
• If your paragraph contains two colors, it’s probably fine. Paragraphs can shift focus sometimes, so a paragraph that has two colors may still work as a single paragraph. Look carefully at the topics to make sure that they are connected and that you haven’t dropped in a new topic in that really belongs in a different paragraph.
• If your paragraph has three or more colors, you probably need to think about separating the topics.
  • I frequently see this problem when the writer starts a paragraph on one idea, realizes that they need to explain a specific point before getting into the original topic, and then shifts back to the first topic, with an additional shift in topic later in the paragraph. Often, that second topic can be pulled out and developed into a new paragraph that is placed before the current one.
  • This can also happen when the paragraph is very long and simply isn’t broken into chunks to make reading easier. Look for those moments when the colors shift, which can indicate good places for paragraph breaks. The new paragraphs might also need a little development (see the next strategy).

Part 3: Example

This is an example of a finished color-coded paragraph

School shootings are very prominent now a day. There are many reasons but one that stands out the most is having a violent history. Shootings are clearly a violent act that do not just happen for no reason, they are thought out and the shooter often tells someone about the act that they are going to commit (Koerth-Baker). The shooters often have a violent history, meaning they had instances in school or at home when they would be aggressive and get punished for it. Bully’s fit that profile, they have the violent trait the makes them want to feel above others and superior. Bullying “affects an estimated 28 percent of 12-to 18-year-old U.S. student…” (Swaak). Bullying can cause the person that is being bullied to do things they normally would not do and affect everyone that is a victim differently. Some decide that the best thing to do is take matters into their own hands. They decide to get revenge on the person that bullied them and the people that stood by while it was happening, fellow students. Swaak also goes on to say “… often linked to another commonly referenced reason behind school shootings: mental health disorders.” Some associate mental illness with a cause for school shootings but that does not seem to be that case, almost none of the shooters had a recorded mental illness but what more of them did have was a violent history (Blad). It was easy ignore the teens that seemed less aggressive, based off their history, as a potential shooter because they didn’t seem to pose a threat (Geraghty). The kids that never had a history of fighting or violence are brushed over because it would not seem to fit that someone who has never gotten into a fight would bring a weapon to school and harm their classmates. But the teens that had gotten into fights and such seemed to fit more of what a shooter would be profiled as. Some people think access to guns is the problem. They would like to restrict the gun rights of everyone for that reason. They say that without guns there would be no school shootings (Anderson).  This seems to be an ineffective argument because even if the government took away all the legally owned guns, they would not know about the guns that were purchased illegally so those would still available if you had the means of getting one.

For this activity, you’ll need your paragraph typed in your word processor.

Note 1: The instructions in Part 1 tell you to cut/paste (rather than copy/paste) the sentences from of the original version of the paragraph. This is so you can be sure that you have moved all of the sentences. If you don’t want to cut from the original, be sure to check that you have actually moved all of the sentences.

Note 2: You can have split sentences (sentences that have more than one topic in them). In those cases, move the parts of the sentence to different topics accordingly.

Part 1: Moving Your Sentences

1. Identify the paragraph’s topic sentence and cut and paste it a few lines below the end of your paragraph.
2. Immediately above that sentence, identify the topic in 1-3 words—just enough to remind yourself of what the topic is.
3. Look at the next sentence (or the first sentence in the paragraph if the topic sentence isn’t the first sentence), and decide if it’s on the same topic.
   1. If it is, cut/paste it right underneath of the first sentence.
   2. If it isn’t, drop down a few more lines, and paste it there. After you do that, immediately above that sentence, identify the new topic in 1-3 words as you did before.
4. Continue moving sentences this way, matching the topics, until all of the sentences in the paragraph have been moved.

Part 2: Analyzing Your Topic-Organized Paragraph

• If all of your sentences appear under one topic, then you have a well-focused paragraph.
• If you have two topics, your paragraph is probably fine. Paragraphs can shift focus sometimes, so a paragraph with two topics may still work as a single paragraph. Look carefully at the topics to make sure that they are connected and that you haven’t dropped in a new topic in that really belongs in a different paragraph.
• If your paragraph has three or more topics, you probably need to think about separating the topics.
  • I frequently see this problem when the writer starts a paragraph on one idea, realizes that they need to explain a specific point before getting into the original topic, and then shifts back to the first topic, with an additional shift in topic later in the paragraph. Often, that second topic can be pulled out and developed into a new paragraph that is placed before the current one.
  • This can also happen when the paragraph is very long and simply isn’t broken into chunks to make reading easier. A good indication is that you have many sentences under each topic. Consider grouping these together in a new paragraph (or two). The new paragraphs might also need a little development (see the next strategy).

Part 3: Example

This is an example of a finished spatially organized paragraph

General

• School shootings are very prominent now a day.

Violent History

• There are many reasons but one that stands out the most is having a violent history.
• Shootings are clearly a violent act that do not just happen for no reason, they are thought out and the shooter often tells someone about the act that they are going to commit (Koerth-Baker).
• The shooters often have a violent history, meaning they had instances in school or at home when they would be aggressive and get punished for it.
• Bully’s fit that profile, they have the violent trait the makes them want to feel above others and superior.
• [Shooters didn’t have mental health problems] but what more of them did have was a violent history (Blad).
• It was easy ignore the teens that seemed less aggressive, based off their history, as a potential shooter because they didn’t seem to pose a threat (Geraghty).
• The kids that never had a history of fighting or violence are brushed over because it would not seem to fit that someone who has never gotten into a fight would bring a weapon to school and harm their classmates.
• But the teens that had gotten into fights and such seemed to fit more of what a shooter would be profiled as.

Bullying

• Bullying “affects an estimated 28 percent of 12-to 18-year-old U.S. student…” (Swaak).
• Bullying can cause the person that is being bullied to do things they normally would not do and affect everyone that is a victim differently.
• Some decide that the best thing to do is take matters into their own hands.
• They decide to get revenge on the person that bullied them and the people that stood by while it was happening, fellow students.

Mental Health

• Swaak also goes on to say “… often linked to another commonly referenced reason behind school shootings: mental health disorders.”
• Some associate mental illness with a cause for school shootings but that does not seem to be that case, almost none of the shooters had a recorded mental illness … (Blad).

Gun Restrictions

• Some people think access to guns is the problem.
• They would like to restrict the gun rights of everyone for that reason.
• They say that without guns there would be no school shootings (Anderson).
• This seems to be an ineffective argument because even if the government took away all the legally owned guns, they would not know about the guns that were purchased illegally so those would still available if you had the means of getting one.