PARAGRAPH ANALYSIS

Analyze the following paragraphs by identifying:

a. The main ideas/topic sentence
b. The supporting ideas
c. The topic

Paragraph I

A university professor has many duties. In the classroom, he or she lectures to the students
and answers questions. If the professor is a science instructor, he or she also conducts
laboratory experiments. During office hours, students are free to visit the professor to get help
on difficult materials or problems. In addition, a professor may often work for many hours in a
laboratory doing a research project. Another professor might spend his or her time writing a
scholarly paper for a professional journal. Still another might spend time writing a book. In
conclusion, a professor is always a busy person. However, he or she usually enjoys his or her
work.
Topic: a university professor’s duties.

Paragraph II

The doctors who pioneered open-heart surgery faced one major problem. Without a steady
supply of fresh blood and the oxygen it carries, the human brain is quickly impaired. In four
minutes, brain cells, which starved for oxygen, began to die, and serious brain damage
resulted. In another few minutes the brain was completely destroyed. Thus, it was impossible
for doctors to take the heart out of action for more than four minutes – very little time to repair
a heart defect. Until a solution was found, working on the open heart was impossible.
Topic: open-heart surgery problem.

Paragraph III

Some believe that cigarette smoking is dangerous and should therefore considered a health
hazard. They want their government to create antismoking program. People differ as to how
strong these antismoking campaign should be. Some of the strongest campaign would try to
completely eliminate cigarette smoking. Supporters of these programs would try only to restrict
the number of places where people could smoke. Such restriction would not try to eliminate
public smoking completely, but only curb smoking by reducing cigarette consumption.

Topic: the effort to fight of smoking hazard.

Paragraph IV

The laser techniques have proved very successful. The laser department of one American
hospital treats more than 100 patients a month. Eighty percent of those treated are able to
leave the hospital immediately. Laser surgery is usually not as traumatic as normal surgical
techniques because with laser beams doctors are able to remove or repair damaged areas
without harming healthy tissue. Dr John Dixon, head or laser surgery at the university of Utah,
said that is not cure-all, but laser techniques will be applied to a large range of procedures and
reduce the need for hospitalization and surgery.

Topic: the successful of laser techniques in surgery