Collaborating on Your Group Essay: Commentary and the Three-Fold Transition Sentence

Before you begin your post, please keep in mind that you need to have the core of your paragraph (all concrete details and commentary) complete or nearly complete.

Post: Write a post to your group members describing the three points you are making in your body paragraph and the commentary you are writing to tie the concrete details to your group’s thesis. In other words, tell your group members what you are writing about. By now your group should have made sure that you are each using different concrete details within your own paragraph, so this post should focus on the commentary. Discuss how your commentary specifically supports the thesis.

Comment: Read each of your group members’ posts and comment back to them. Your comment should include your critique of how their commentary supports the thesis and give them ideas for their three-fold transition sentence. Give each member of your group an idea for how they can transition from or to your paragraph and refer subtly to the thesis without being overly repetitive. *The comments are each worth 10 points and need to be substantial and thoughtful.

The Three-Fold Transition Sentence:

1. Refers subtly to the idea discussed in the previous paragraph
2. Refers briefly to the overall thesis idea
3. Refers more specifically to any new ideas to be discussed in the next paragraph.

See the back of your body paragraph graphic organizer for helpful examples of the three-fold transition sentence.