Analysing

A PARAGRAPH
 Paragraphing
Before you can write a paragraph
properly you must be able to
read, analyse and understand
a paragraph properly.

A rather long paragraph

for analysing follows…
 INTRODUCTION
to
The STUDY of THEOLOGY
“Christians believe that God desires to have fellowship
with the humans he has created. He wants us to
walk closely with him. This means we need to know
him personally and want to please him continuously.
Theology is the study of that relationship between
God and his creatures, in every aspect of that
relationship. It seeks to understand who God is, what
he has revealed to us of himself, his purposes for his
creation, and what he expects of us his creatures. So
by studying theology we should learn more clearly
what to believe about God and ourselves, and the
world into which he has placed us. We should equally
learn how we should behave towards God, our
neighbours and our physical environment. Most
important of all we should deepen our experience of
God as we seek to walk with him more closely each
day. Christian theology sees Christ as the goal of all
these studies, whether they take belief, behaviour or
experience as their starting point.”
 What are the KEY WORDS
in this paragraph?

For the purposes of this exercise

only underline all the words or phrases
that should stand out as being
important.
Without them you could not make sense of the
passage.
They signal all the points made in the paragraph.
 INTRODUCTION to
The STUDY of THEOLOGY worksheet

“Christians believe that God desires to have fellowship

with the humans he has created. He wants us to
walk closely with him. This means we need to know
him personally and want to please him continuously.
Theology is the study of that relationship between
God and his creatures, in every aspect of that
relationship. It seeks to understand who God is, what
he has revealed to us of himself, his purposes for his
creation, and what he expects of us his creatures. So
by studying theology we should learn more clearly
what to believe about God and ourselves, and the
world into which he has placed us. We should equally
learn how we should behave towards God, our
neighbours and our physical environment. Most
important of all we should deepen our experience of
God as we seek to walk with him more closely each
day. Christian theology sees Christ as the goal of all
these studies, whether they take belief, behaviour or
experience as their starting point.”
 INTRODUCTION to
The STUDY of THEOLOGY Response
Christians believe that God desires to have fellowship
with the humans he has created. He wants us to
walk closely with him. This means we need to
know him personally and want to please him
continuously. Theology is the study of that
relationship between God and his creatures, in
every aspect of that relationship. It seeks to
understand who God is, what he has revealed to us
of himself, his purposes for his creation, and what
he expects of us his creatures. So by studying
theology we should learn more clearly what to
believe about God and ourselves, and the world into
which he has placed us. We should equally learn how
we should behave towards God, our neighbours
and our physical environment. Most important of all
we should deepen our experience of God as we
seek to walk with him more closely each day.
Christian theology sees Christ as the goal of all
these studies, whether they take belief, behaviour
or experience as their starting point.
What is the TOPIC of this
PARAGRAPH?
 What is the TOPIC SENTENCE?
Your Suggestions:
TOPIC & TOPIC SENTENCE Tutor’s Response

TOPIC:
“Theology”

TOPIC SENTENCE:
“Theology is the study of
that relationship
between God and his creatures,
in every aspect of that relationship.”
What are the MAIN POINTS (statements) of this paragraph?
(Some possibilities – choose 5 or 6:

 God wants us to walk closely with him

 We need to experience him personally
 Theology studies the relationship between God
and us
 Theology is about the study of God
 Theology tells us what God has revealed about
himself and his creation
 Theology is primarily about belief, behaviour and
experience of God
 We must learn what are our responsibilities
towards God, our neighbours and the
environment
 Christ is the ultimate goal of all our theological
studies.)
 MAIN POINTS Tutor’s Response

 God wants us to have a personal relationship

with him
 Theology studies aspects of that relationship
 In particular Theology is about belief,
behaviour and experience of God
 It concerns our responsibilities towards God,
other people and the created world
 Christ is the ultimate goal of all our studies.
 Write your own SUMMARY of this paragraph
using these main points
(in approximately half to one third of the original space)
 SUMMARY Tutor’s Response

Theology studies the various aspects of

the relationship God wants us
to have with him.
This involves
matters of belief about God,
of how we experience him,
and of our behaviour towards God,
our fellow human beings
and the world we live in.
Ultimately we find that
Christ is the goal of all theological studies.
 What has been Learnt?
What have you learnt from this study?

 Note down as several items (in statement

form) what you have learnt

 Then form either one paragraph or several

paragraphs to describe all that you have
learnt from this exercise
What has been Learnt? Worksheet
 What has been Learnt?
I trust you have learnt something about
how to construct a PARAGRAPH,

perhaps also about making

a SUMMARY or PRECIS.

I hope you will also have learnt,

from working on this exercise,
something about THEOLOGY!
 Notes
To analyse:
“To study / examine something in detail
in order to discover more about it.”

NB:
Analysis involves separating
the different parts of the whole.
 A Topic:
“A subject which is
discussed, written about or studied.”
Its function is to provide a general idea of
what the whole discussion / passage is about
A Topic Sentence:
states the general point
being made about the topic
Main Points:
state the chief points being made
relating to this general point
Key Words:
the “signposts” that help us to
identify these points
 A Precis (or Summary):
“A short form of a text which briefly gives
only the important parts.”
A précis helps us to focus and clarify
our understanding of the text.

In a précis:
 details and examples are left out
 use is made of key words and main
points, which may be
 re-phrased.
The End