MbShea@PWP@English@UMCP

Let's look at examples of topic sentences useful in the rain garden memo:

Rain gardens, or bioretention ponds, are a kind of low impact development.  Low impact development....

Rain gardens have two components:  layers of percolation material and carefully chosen plants.

Rain gardens protect the local environment by absorbing water run-off from impervious surfaces and by sequestering pollutants.

Dr. Allen Davis studies rain garden effectiveness.  Davis, a civil engineering professor, has been studying bioretention for more than twenty years.

Let's also think about sentences generally.  General advice to you?  Write shorter sentences than those you are familiar with in literature and many of your textbooks. 

Now, let's think about sentences: 

Sentence Patterns

Buffy and Sentences

Pitch the Verb

And, on to paragraphs:

Paragraph Definition: think Architectures

Paragraph Types

More on stasis approaches:

Stasis and research (Owl Purdue, by colleague A.B.)

BYU page on stasis approach (see how legal process and jurisprudence knits forth?)

Stasis and dinosaur debate (download full text and skim)

My take on stasis with environmental scientists