How to Write a Good Body Paragraph using TBEAR

So I know at the very beginning of this just reading the title you may be asking what is TBEAR and how is it going to teach me how to write a good body paragraph. So before I go any further let me tell you the story of TBEAR, how it came into my life, and why it is the writing method that I teach to all of my students no matter what level they are at.

So TBEAR is an acronym that helps you learn what needs to be included in a body paragraph in an essay. This method specifically was the brainchild of my high school English teacher Mr. Dunn. As far as I know, he was the one that come up with it and he taught it to us. He was my English teacher for 3 years and he was my favorite teacher. Most of my favorite teachers came from high school and they were teachers that I had for multiple years which helped out a lot. So his class was where I was first introduced to the idea of TBEAR, and decided that it was basically the best method for organizing body paragraphs.

TBEAR is a simple method but it can be adapted, or expanded to cover almost every essay that students will have to write over their learning careers. It is simple enough for little kids to learn but also comprehensive enough that even students in college can make it work for their term papers. This is why I use it with every single one of my students.

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Why body paragraphs are so important

Body Paragraphs are so important because they are the backbone of an essay and that is why all students need to know how to write a good body paragraph. Also, if students are very familiar with the structure of a body paragraph they just have to repeat that a couple of times, and then they will be done with their paper. If students do not have good body paragraphs they are going to ruin their paper.

What is TBEAR

Okay now, let’s get to what TBEAR actually is and how to write a good body paragraph. As I said TBEAR is an acronym so I will lay out below what each of the parts of the acronym means.

Topic Sentence

T stands for Topic Sentence. This will always be the first sentence of the paragraph, and it will state the one topic that you are going to talk about in the paragraph. It needs to be narrow enough that you aren’t including everything about the subject but broad enough that you have enough to talk about.

Background Information

B stands for Background information. This is where you give a little bit of background on the reading. This is where you let your readers know something that they may not have known about the topic. Your background information is the frame and introduction for your quotes.

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Evidence

E stands for Evidence. This is where you start bringing in the research or the reading that you are working with. This is the section where you quote or paraphrase your research. You are citing the text to prove your claim, which you put forth in your thesis.

Analysis

A stands for Analysis. In this section, you state why your evidence matters. Why does the evidence back up your claim and why is it important? You can start it with this is important because… This shows that… Etc. This is the most important part of your paragraph.

Return to Thesis

R stands for Return to Thesis, which is a fancy way of saying a transition to the next paragraph. You go back to your thesis, and say, “I talked about this part of my thesis next I will talk about this.” You then try to subtlety mention the next topic to make it a smoother transition into the next paragraph.

If students understand how to implement all the parts of TBEAR they are well on the way to writing a great body paragraph. Also, this method can be adjusted the only thing that has to stay the same throughout is that the topic sentence is always first and the transition is last. However, you can do evidence then analyze and introduce another piece of evidence then analyze that piece of evidence. If you want 2 or 3 or 4 sentences of analysis about a piece of evidence that is also something that would fit the mold.

If you would like a printable version of this method with practice pages so that you can teach how to write a good body paragraph to your students using the TBEAR method sign up to be one of my subscribers by clicking the image below and filling out the form and I will send it to you.