English 102 Answering Simple Questions
Answer questions 1-20 pertaining to the body paragraph below:
Body Paragraph #1
Serial murders are defined as people who engage in three or more killings over a moderate time with a period to ‘cool down’. Although media have glorified and portrayed something else, serial killers are said to be the rarest of all criminals and killers at that. To better understand just how rare serial killers are, Gao and Raine shared the most accurate estimate in numbers “The prevalence of psychopathy is not definitively known, but is estimated at approximately 0.6–1% in general populations (Coid, Yang, Ullrich, Roberts, & Hare, 2009; Hare, 2003) and 3.5% in the business world (Babiak & Hare, 2006)” (196). Cowan describes a common trait found not only in serial killers but most other violent criminals is someone who has no remorse over their wrong doings, and someone who does extremely awful things to others without thinking twice (300). On the contrary, there are very distinct differences and desires a serial killer portrays compared to another killer with different motives, such as a visionary killer or a mass murderer. Dalal et al. states “If a person kills several victims of usually of a particular type, over a period of time with varying intervals in between, apparently without motive except for sexual or sadistic gratification, he is described as “serial killer” and such culprit is a special psychiatric entity and invariably a male” (109). This statement has blended the most common characteristics noted to define a serial killer. Also, when crime scene analysis pulls up to a scene which looks like a killing there are things that will stick out to them right away and can get a better understanding of what type of killer they’re dealing with, however; it isn’t until later into an investigation will other key factors stand out. A major part of breaking a serial killer case is figuring out what the geographic location of the killing means to the killer. Whittington- Egan explains that in most cases a serial killer will not kill close to come in fear of showing the obvious, it seems to close to comfort for them. Nevertheless, without being too risky they don’t stem too far from home. Most serial killings happen relatively close to their general surroundings (329). Even though serial killers are said to make up a very small portion of the world there has been enough evidence and similarities to prove their general behavior and attitude as a member of society.
1. Is the first sentence the topic sentence? Write the topic sentence here:
2. Do the second and/or third sentence explain or clarify the topic
sentence, or define terminology with which you might not be familiar?
3. Is evidence then presented that seems to support the topic sentence?
Does the evidence wander off onto other topics?
4. Are there at least four quotations and/or paraphrases in the paragraph?
5. Is each quotation or paraphrase introduced so that you know a little bit
about the source or author from which it came?
6. Is each quotation or paraphrase properly cited with a page number or paragraph number in parentheses at its end?
7. Does the writer explain every piece of evidence, showing how it
supports the topic sentence?
8. Does the writer use clear, direct language so that you can understand
what he/she is saying?
9. Is there a concluding sentence that sums up the paragraph and relates everything back to the thesis statement?
10. Are transitions used throughout the paragraph to show where the
material is heading?
11. Where do you want to see more evidence (second sentence, fourth
sentence, etc.)?
12. What type of evidence would you like to see in each of these
sentences?
13. In which places do you think the writer presented too much material
or evidence?
14. In which places do you become bored?
15. In which places do you become confused?
16. What else would you like to see in the paragraph?
17. Are there problems with punctuation in the paragraph?
18. Are there problems with grammar in the paragraph?
19. Are there overly-long or unwieldy sentences in the paragraph?
20. What do you like best about the paragraph?
