Writing Book 4 · Lesson 36

Notes into a paragraph

Good notes carry enough to write a paragraph without the source.

What it is

This is the reason for taking notes at all. Good notes already hold a paragraph's structure: your I becomes the topic sentence, each A becomes a supporting sentence, each 1 becomes the evidence after it. Write from the notes with the source closed — if you cannot, the notes were too thin.

Watch it built

1
Start from your outline.
I. Deserts are hard to live in / A. Very little water / 1. Some years no rain
2
Turn the I into a full sentence. That is your topic sentence.
Deserts are among the hardest places on earth to live.
3
Turn each A into a sentence, and let each 1 follow it as proof.
There is very little water. In some years no rain falls at all.
Remember
I becomes the topic sentence. A supports it. 1 proves it.
Ask yourself: “Did my notes have enough?”

Remember

Close the book. Write from the notes.

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