Body Paragraph---Premise

Body Paragraph---Premise

by Amy Williams

​What's a Premise?

• Academic language for giving “a reason”

  Known also as a “topic sentence”

  The reason has to explain your claim.

  Always the first sentence of your body paragraph. 

  Needs to make sense

  Begins with a transition word. 

Multiple Choice

To begin with, Charlotte exhibits qualities of a good friend when she is kind to Wilbur.

Which words are my transitional words?

• To

• begin

• with,

• To begin with,

Fill in the Blank

To begin with, Charlotte exhibits qualities of a good friend when she is kind to Wilbur.

What is the reason that Charlotte is a good friend?

Multiple Choice

Claim: Pretzels are better than potato chips

• To begin with, pretzels contain less sodium than chips, making them a healthier better, option.

• First of all, a one ounce serving of pretzels contain approximately 25 grams of carbohydrates and 3 grams of protein.

Multiple Choice

Claim: Baseball is the best sport.

• Additionally, baseball is the best sport because it’s the one sport that’s not over, until it’s over. This means the sport forces the winning team to continue playing quality defense even if they are ahead - keeping the game full of excitement until the final out.

• Furthermore, baseball games are excruciating to watch, with the average game lasting three hours and five minutes.