Critical Response to the ACR Paragraph 'An Editorial on Class Sizes in School'

1. The best feature of this paragraph is the argumentative part of it. The arguments which are given to support author’s position are strong and clearly formulated.

2. In general format of paragraph is correct, but it can be difficult to use it as a model because the structure of it is not very strict (especially, the opposing idea is not stated clearly) and the style of writing is rather informal.

3. The topic sentence is clear, but the controlling idea is formulated in another sentence.

4. The supporting sentences reveal the controlling idea and give a number of useful details.

5. The concluding sentence clearly restates the controlling idea, but there is no appropriate end-of-paragraph signal.

6. All the sentences support the controlling idea.

7. The sentences flow smoothly, transitional signals are used, but in some parts of paragraph there is no transition, and it is difficult to follow the structure.

8. The first four sentences could be represented as one properly constructed topic sentence.

h   9. The author very often uses informal and expressive words and constructions (I’ve      noticed; large; few; hard; greater).