Unity(主题一致)
The previous unit has given you some idea about unity. By unity we mean that all the information, all the details, all the ideas in a paragraph serve only one purpose. The following paragraph (违反) displays the principle of unity.
Sample One:
My younger brother’s room is always a mess. He never learned to be neat. Instead of cleaning up his room when he returns from school, he’d rather go to the schoolyard and play basketball. Even though he is a pretty good basketball player, he should try to be a little less lazy.
Comments: The sentences wander aimlessly without ever coming to a central idea, making it impossible for the readers to focus on a unified idea. Now consider the following paragraph:
Improved Sample:
My younger brother’s room is always a mess. His bed is never made, and there are parts of model airplanes all over his desks and bureau. Dirty clothes are piled in a corner, and socks are scattered all over the floor.
Now all the sentences have joined together, forming a unified paragraph because only one idea is developed — the messy room. Each sentence supports this main idea.
A topic sentence helps you to separate what is relevant from what is irrelevant. Only include in your paragraph the details and information that are relevant to your topic sentence, and omit the irrelevant details and information.
Exercise: Please delete what is irrelevant to the topic sentence in the following paragraph.
We never had enough time to eat lunch in high school: half of the time I’d get a stomachache from hurriedly wolfing down the food. The food was lousy, anyway. We complained to the administration, but it didn’t do any good. We were often held up getting into the cafeteria because the lunchroom helpers were slow in getting the tables and food ready.