Exercise 21
Paragraph B: Writing an Inductive Paragraph
 |
Background Information: Facts in the following paragraph were taken from an article that appeared in The Maui News on May 12, 1997 on page B5. Written by Allison Barker, it was called "Clothing Makers Mining the Earth and Fields for Brands with Appeal" |
A Sample Paragraph:
Sandra White, a hairstylist, and her sister-in-law, Linda Knowles,the owner of a delicatessen in
Bluefield, West Virginia, used lumps of coal to make their fortune in what they call Black Gold
Creations. "I just went outside and got some coal and put it in a pot to boil," said Sandra. "I got
some of my husband's T-shirts and threw them in the pot. They came out a perfect black." Now
using an old wringer washer to mass produce shirts that are selling like hotcakes, Sandra and
Linda have sold 2,000 T-shirts and sweatshirts in less than six months. Their sales doubled their
initial investment of $3,000. A T-shirt, packaged with a small bag containing lumps of coal and a
story about its history, sells for $21.95. A solid black sweatshirt, packaged the same way, retails
for $34.86. In Hawaii, coffee and red dirt have produced similar results. A company on the Big
Island called Crazy Shirts uses Kona coffee as a dye source. "The shirts become a warm tan color
and smell like coffee," says Louann McNulty, the merchandising manager. On Kauai, Red Dirt
Shirts and Red Lava Shirts, which are reddish-orange in color, are doused in boiling water mixed
with red volcanic soil. It's the iron oxide in the soil that has a high-staining quality and turns
everything red. Robert Crisp, who owns the Red Dirt Shirt company in Atlanta, Georgia, recently
added juice from a summer fruit to his stock of natural dye sources. "We just added a new peach
shirt," he says. "It's made with a juice concentrate that we get from a cannery." So if a
pomegranate or a blade of grass stains your clothes and won't come out, get glad, not mad, as you
race to the kitchen to get a pot full of boiling water and a T-shirt you can part with. For pioneering
companies have struck it rich with organic ore which is worth its weight in gold when it comes to
selling unusual custom-dyed T-shirts.
Paragraph Analysis:
In contrast with others we have looked at, this paragraph uses an
inductive approach.
The generalization or topic sentence appears at the end.
Paragraph Preparation for an Inductive Writing
Experience:
Select an area that has an integrated visual display such as still life portraits, land or seascapes,
handmade jewelry, or handcrafted baskets.
Begin at one end of the exhibit.
And take specific notes on visual items that you view.
Pay particular attention to such things as color, texture, mood, composition, the name of the artist,
and the date of production of the items studied.
Then, write an inductive paragraph in which your factual observations precede your generalization.
Directions:
Specific main clause facts are presented first.
Go to an art gallery or a craft museum of your choice.
