Using the Dialogue Method to Build Paragraph Structure

When you develop a paragraph, imagine you’re having a conversation with someone in which you are trying to make a point.

1) The first sentence of the paragraph answers the question, “What’s your point?” (this is often called the topic sentence)

Undocumented students have a difficult time getting into college in the United States.

2) Then, the person you’re talking to says, “I don’t get it.” The second sentence says the idea of the topic sentence in a different way. 

Here, you can also elaborate or become more specific, but the idea is to repeat the topic sentence in a new way that meaningfully adds context and information.

Students who are in the U.S. illegally struggle with applying to college because they do not have social security numbers or they are not eligible for federal student aid.

3) The person says, “Prove it.”

Then you have to show evidence, which also means introducing, citing, and explaining it. This part of the paragraph structure uses as many sentences as you need. 

In addition to putting the evidence out there, these sentences also explain how your evidence supports your point.

For example, in Hold Fast to Dreams, in order to apply to college, Aicha had to take the risk of applying for asylum. If she wasn’t granted asylum, she would be deported (Steckel 27). Another student, Santiago, didn’t have a social security number, and, as he explains in the book, even though he “got accepted to John Jay College, the financial aid and other officers didn’t know what to do with [him] when [he] arrived.” They sent him back and forth between offices, and he could not get through the bureaucracy. At BMCC, he was turned away at the door simply because he didn’t have a social security number (Steckel, 30-32). For both these students, their status as “illegal” prevented them from advancing through the college system.

4) Then the person says, “So what?”

Your response explains why your point is significant or important.

The so-called American dream doesn’t exist for them. They don’t have the same rights as their peers, despite the fact that America is built on a platform of immigration, prides itself on ideas of equality, and supposedly upholds high standards for universal human rights.

The Resulting Paragraph:

Undocumented students have a difficult time getting into college in the United States. Students who are in the U.S. illegally struggle with applying to college because they do not have social security numbers or they are not eligible for federal student aid. For example, in Hold Fast to Dreams, in order to apply to college, Aicha had to take the risk of applying for asylum. If she wasn’t granted asylum, she would be deported (Steckel 27). Another student, Santiago, didn’t have a social security number, and, as he explains in the book, even though he “got accepted to John Jay College, the financial aid and other officers didn’t know what to do with [him] when [he] arrived.” They sent him back and forth between offices, and he could not get through the bureaucracy. At BMCC, he was turned away at the door simply because he didn’t have a social security number (Steckel, 30-32). For both these students, their status as “illegal” prevented them from advancing through the college system. The so-called American dream doesn’t exist for them. They don’t have the same rights as their peers, despite the fact that America is built on a platform of immigration, prides itself on ideas of equality, and supposedly upholds high standards for universal human rights.