English Skills with Readings 7th Edition by John Langan

Exercise 2

Each topic sentence below is followed by two sets of supporting details (a and b). Write S (for specific) in the space next to the set that provides specific support for the 14 point. Write G (for general) next to the set that offers only vague, general support.
1. Topic sentence: My roommate is messy.
______a. He doesn't seem to mind that he can't find any clean clothes or
dishes. He never puts anything back in its proper place; he just drops it wherever he happens to be. His side of the room looks as if a hurricane has gone through.
______b. His coffee cup is covered inside with a thick layer of green mold. I can't tell you what color his easy chair is; it has disappeared under a pile of dirty laundry. When he turns over in bed, I can hear the crunch of cracker crumbs beneath his body.
2. Topic sentence: Roberta is very aggressive.
________a. Her aggressiveness is apparent in both her personal and her professional life. She is never shy about extending social invitations. And while some people are turned off by her aggressive attitude, others are impressed by it and enjoy doing business with her.
________b. When she meets a man she likes, she is quick to say, "Let's go out sometime. What's your phone number " In her job as a furniture salesperson, she will follow potential customers out onto the side­walk as she tries to persuade them to buy.
3. Topic sentence: Our new kitten causes us lots of trouble.
______a. He has shredded the curtains in my bedroom with his claws. He
nearly drowned when he crawled into the washing machine. And my hands look like raw hamburger from his playful bites and scratches.
_____b. He seems to destroy everything he touches. He's always getting into places where he doesn't belong. Sometimes he plays too roughly, and that can be painful.
4. Topic sentence: My landlord is softhearted.
_____a. Even though he wrote them himself, he sometimes ignores the
official apartment rules in order to make his tenants happy.
______b. Although the lease states "No pets," he brought my daughter a
puppy after she told him how much she missed having one.
5. Topic sentence: The library is a distracting place to try to study.
_______a. It's hard to concentrate when a noisy eight-person poker game is going on on the floor beside you. It's also distracting to overhear remarks like, "Hey, Baby, what's your mother's address I want to send her a thank-you card for having such a beautiful daughter."
______b. Many students meet in the library to do group activities and social­ize with one another. Others go there to flirt. It's easy to get more interested in all that activity than in paying attention to your studies.