Locate the topic sentence. tell which paragraph shape and pattern type this paragraph is.

1 the art of letter writing seems to have declined sharply in recent years.
2 perhaps the rising cost of stationery and postage is a factor.
3 most people today are so busy with their jobs, their families, and their hobbies that they do not feel they have time to write letters.
4 to a certain extent, television and personal computers have replaced communicating with friends as a form of entertainment.
5 the advent of the telephone and the use of e-mail, however, are probably the most significant factor in the decrease of letter writing, because they give instant access to friends and loved ones.

topic sentence:

sentence 1, sentence 2, sentence 3, sentence 4, or sentence 5

paragraph structure "shape":

diamond, rectangle, regular triangle, or inverted triangle

pattern:

time order, spatial order, cause-effect, simple listing, compare/contrast, or order of importance

martians or other types of aliens represent a unique fear as opposed to zombies. vampires and other types of monsters.   in most sci-fi stories, aliens come from other worlds and have different or more advanced technology.   abductions and experimentation on human bodies that involve these technologies, or the use of these technologies against human beings and the use of unknown "powers", are a type of fear that's different from that of other types of monsters.  

boccaccio employs the voice of his narrator dioneo to represent his ideas on the tension between masculinity and femininity.  while dioneo excites the members of the brigata and recognizes women for their unique skills and independent ideas, he concludes the decameron with a story reminiscent of the society from which these young aristocrats escaped, revealing misogynistic overtones.  dioneo boccaccio is able to explore the gender disparity which is inherent in 14th century florentine society.

1.   in sonnet 18, the speaker wants to describe the beauty of his love, but can’t find the words to do so. the speaker says “then in mid-utterance the lay was lost” when he tries to think of the words to describe his love’s beauty.   through his defeat of finding words to describe his love, he shows his love for her.

2.   instead of describing how perfect his love is or comparing her to other beautiful things, he says she is average and there is nothing special about her.   at the last 2 lines of the poem, the volta changes the poem by saying that even though his love is average in beauty, his love for her is special and unique. so instead of praising her throughout the whole poem, he contrasts her average characteristics with his special love for her.

3.   the beloved asked the speaker to describe how he feels about her. she begins to describe what she feels but "drop the torch" and says that she can't do it because the words "hid in me out of reach." the the speaker says "nay, let the silence of my womanhood command my woman-love to thy belief" and that her silence will have to be the answer to his question.