For Thursday, please write a “nutshell paragraph” for your own article and post it to Open Lab.  I also strongly suggest you add this paragraph to your rough draft for Thursday’s class, We will be discussing the rough drafts and I think this will help!

For those of you who missed class, you can see the slideshow HERE.

It was adapted from THIS New York Times article, which may be helpful.

If you have not submitted a rough draft, I very strongly suggest you do so.  I’ve decided  that I will look over any RD’s submitted by Thursday 8 AM and will make some brief comments on them to help with your revision. I’ll do this over Spring break. 

Category: Unit 2

How do I write a Nutshell Paragraph? 

Step One:

Step back from whatever topic you’re writing about and focus on why it is important. Try answering these questions first so that when you get to the point in your piece where you might include a kind of “nut” paragraph of your own, you’re prepared with ideas:

  • Why is this topic worth writing about?
  • What is the wider context for this? Why might it help to explain to show why this is an important topic? How is it relevant in the world today?
  • Whom or what does it affect? Why? How?
  • What makes what you’re saying new, unique or timely?

Step Two: 

You don’t want to write a paragraph that is just a bullet point list of those questions or answers; you want it to sound good and capture the reader’s attention. To do this, look at the examples of nutshell paragraphs in the slideshow above, as well as in your mentor texts to see how they’ve done it.  Almost all articles have them!

When you put a “nutshell” paragraph in your article, think closely about where is the best place to put it.  You can look to your mentor texts, or these articles we’ve read in class for help!