PARAGRAPHING -- Listed below are facts about Mark Twain.  They are not in logical order, and they are all written in short, choppy sentences. Read over the list of facts. Decide how they should be grouped. Write the numbers of the sentences in what you think is the best order and best grouping (two or three paragraphs). Write out the resulting paragraphs, indenting and punctuating as needed. You may add and subtract words as you see fit, but make sure all the facts are included.
  1. Mark Twain died in 1910 when Halley’s comet appeared.
  2. He wrote Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.  These are based on his boyhood in Hannibal, Missouri, along the Mississippi River.
  3. His real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens.
  4. He was born in 1835 when Halley’s comet appeared.
  5. He became famous as a humorist later in life.
  6. Roughing It is based on his trip to the Nevada silver mines.
  7. One of his early jobs was a pilot on a Mississippi steamboat.
  8. His pen name came from a call the river pilots used to indicate the depth of water.
  9. When he was younger, he was a newspaperman and traveled to other parts of the world.
  10. Innocents Abroad is based on his travels in Europe.
  11. He went on many lecture tours later in his life.
  12. Two other books he wrote are A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and The Prince and the Pauper.
  13. He was born in Missouri, in the heart of America.
  14. But, he made his permanent home in the East.
  15. People still quote things he said.


PARAGRAPHING -- Listed below are facts about Mark Twain.  They are not in logical order, and they are all written in short, choppy sentences. Read over the list of facts. Decide how they should be grouped. Write the numbers of the sentences in what you think is the best order and best grouping (two or three paragraphs). Write out the resulting paragraphs, indenting and punctuating as needed. You may add and subtract words as you see fit, but make sure all the facts are included.

  1. Mark Twain died in 1910 when Halley’s comet appeared.
  2. He wrote Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.  These are based on his boyhood in Hannibal, Missouri, along the Mississippi River.
  3. His real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens.
  4. He was born in 1835 when Halley’s comet appeared.
  5. He became famous as a humorist later in life.
  6. Roughing It is based on his trip to the Nevada silver mines.
  7. One of his early jobs was a pilot on a Mississippi steamboat.
  8. His pen name came from a call the river pilots used to indicate the depth of water.
  9. When he was younger, he was a newspaperman and traveled to other parts of the world.
  10. Innocents Abroad is based on his travels in Europe.
  11. He went on many lecture tours later in his life.
  12. Two other books he wrote are A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and The Prince and the Pauper.
  13. He was born in Missouri, in the heart of America.
  14. But, he made his permanent home in the East.
  15. People still quote things he said.