In order to ensure that your paragraphs are organized, don’t use too much “filler” (citations) and relate to your argument, you may find this 5-point checklist helpful. Keep in mind that this won’t apply to all internal paragraphs, and that some paragraphs may have more points in them than listed here; this is merely a model that serves for our Blog Practice.

Internal Paragraphs will generally contain:
1.Introductory Sentence: Transitions from the previous paragraph (I should be able to guess what the previous paragraph was about) and introduces the new topic.
2.Example related directly to the topic
3. Citation or Statistic or Paraphrase that is directly related to your example and appropriately cited in MLA format
4. Explanation of that citation (paraphrase AND relevance to your argument) in your own words
5.Concluding Sentence: Recaps the main idea and leads into the next paragraph

Note: You may have several examples, citations, or take more than one sentence to explain each citation – this basic model will help ensure that you have a minimum of 5 sentences per paragraph (we’re aiming for 8-10) and that only 20% of your entire paper is citation (ideally no more than 30% should be reference)

Assignment:
You are going to construct two internal paragraphs for a paper on the following topic:

A) Violent video games and violent behavior:

1. Write an internal paragraph that provides supporting evidence that violent video games lead to violence in children.

2. Write an internal paragraph discussing the COUNTERARGUMENT -- that violent video games do hold some educational benefits

You will need to do some research from credible websites or the school library in order to find appropriate examples and series of citations to use. Be sure your citation is cited correctly according to MLA formatting.