Instructor:Lecturer Ahmed Sahib Mubarak
Class:First-year, B. Edu.
Subject:Composition
Lecture title: Major and minor support sentences
Lecture objective: Teaching students how to accurately develop the controlling idea of the paragraph by means of the major support sentences and minor support sentences
Lecture Summary
The first requirement of writing a good paragraph is creating an effective topic sentence that clearly summarizes the controlling idea of the paragraph. The second important requirement of a good paragraph is the full development of the controlling idea in the rest of the paragraph. This is done through sentences that mention reasons, give examples, …etc. about the topic sentence. These sentences are called support sentences. Support sentences are of two types: major support sentences and minor support sentences.
A major support sentence is the one that develops the controlling idea of the paragraph by telling the reader something new or different about that idea. It directly supports the controlling idea by making that idea more easily understood.
A minor support sentence is the one that (1) develops its major support sentence by telling the reader something new or different about that sentence and (2) at the same time it helps its major support sentence develop the controlling idea. It directly supports its major support sentence by making that idea more easily understood. It indirectly supports the controlling idea of the paragraph by helping its major support sentence make that idea more easily understood. Therefore, a minor support sentence must be closely related both to its major support sentence and to the controlling idea of the paragraph.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that any sentence in a good paragraph is either a topic sentence, a major support sentence, or a minor support sentence.