Making "TEA" can improve students' writing

Heads up that this is a very applied/practical post, compared to some of the more philosophical or opinionated pieces that have recently run in this space.

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Hot, tasty beverages sketched in Quebec City (credit: B.G. Merkle, 2012)

This sketch of tea and other hot drinks hails from my time living in Quebec City. It always reminds me that there are a lot of ways to make a tasty beverage -- and that the same is true for writing a compelling sentence or paragraph. However, just like some folks are picky about what kind of tea they drink, so too are people uber-particular about what makes a paragraph compelling. And yet, most of us struggle to articulate why, precisely, we think one paragraph says something more effectively, eloquently, humorously, or respectfully than another version attempting to convey the same points.

Today, I'm going to share a tool that made this "why" effort much easier for me (and much more accessible for students I've worked with).

But first, a detour to clarify why I'm sharing this tool right now. I've spent the past year co-writing a book to help instructors and research mentors help developing writers. What this means, at least in part, is that we're writing a book to help students both write better paragraphs and understand what actually makes a paragraph better.

I've spent the past many years teaching writing and communication at a university, through workshops, and before that as a journalist and editor. In all those experiences, I've found something quite consistent. Even people with as much experience writing and coaching writing as I have still struggle to clarify what an effective paragraph actually is and does. That does not make it easy to explain it to students, of course!

It's no surprise that articulating what makes a paragraph (or even a sentence) effective is hard for us. After all, most of us learned to write primarily through exposure, not direct tuition. Even those of us old enough to have diagrammed sentences still weren't taught the vocabulary needed to say what, rhetorically speaking, makes Paragraph B more compelling than Paragraph A when both are about the same subject.

I didn't realize this was an issue when I headed into the trainings that prepared me to teach freshman composition (and germinated the idea for my book). In fact, I thought I was pretty well equipped, thanks to all my previous experience as a journalist, editor, etc. But, I quickly found I also had trouble articulating to students why exactly a paragraph of theirs wasn't getting the job done. Then, I was introduced to the "TEA paragraph" -- it was a tool I was expected to teach to freshmen students in my section of English 1010, a required writing course for all freshmen at my university.

And, to this day, the TEA paragraph persists as the useful resource I use to help people say what goes into an effective paragraph to help developing writers see how to create such paragraphs.

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A recipe for TEA

TEA stands for Topic Sentence, Evidence, Analysis.

And yes, that could seem like it's just more jargon. But, when you break down this recipe, it becomes a user-friendly tool you can use to help just about any developing writer.

The whole formula is only a bit more involved:

• Topic Sentence - Clarifies the main point of the paragraph while transitioning/connecting to the point of the previous paragraph.

• Evidence - Subsequent sentences in the paragraph support the main point, relying on relevant, cited sources to do so.

  • Provides context for the evidence, too (including explanation of the source, validity, direct quotations, etc., as appropriate).

  • Interpretation of the evidence, especially if using direct quotations.

• Analysis/discussion - Concluding sentences connect the evidence to both the main point of the paragraph and the main ideas of the entire piece of writing. This may involve providing further explanation and interpreting the evidence in ways that are relevant to the reader.

How do you teach students to make (their own) TEA?

You'll want to walk students through examples of both effective paragraphs and paragraphs that are missing key elements of TEA. Have them peer-edit or team edit their own paragraphs. Show them the resources in this packet, which includes sample paragraphs, slides breaking down TEA, and handouts with detailed discussion of the TEA structure. Ideally, you'll build beyond the examples in that packet, focusing on examples of writing you expect from them in class and anticipate they'll need to produce once they graduate. Above all, you'll consistently nudge students to refer back to the TEA paragraph structure for self-editing, thereby establishing a shared structure and vocabulary that you can help them use habitually.

Certainly, you might think that the TEA paragraph structure is too prescriptive (e.g., sometimes a key point comes at the end of a paragraph, not at the beginning). Or, you might feel the TEA structure is too simple for some writers (e.g., upper-division undergrads, grad students, etc.). But, just as you likely didn't start out teaching/advising with the vocabulary to dissect an effective paragraph, even more advanced students can benefit from this formula. At a minimum, you can show students these resources and remind them that this is the foundational recipe for effective paragraphs. Then, you should ask them to remember to "make TEA" when drafting text for your review. Once they can reliably do so, most students eventually build up to where TEA is something they are riffing off of rather than adhering to at all times.

This post is based on material from my forthcoming book, Helping Students Write in the Sciences. Connect to more related resources here.