Supporting your claim

Here are the next three sentences from the opening paragraph of The Tell-Tale Heart. 

Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell.

These three sentences work together in a particular way. The first sentence makes a claim, then the next two sentences provide evidence for this claim.

Two other things you might notice:

  • The second sentence actually contains two examples joined by and.
  • The third sentence makes a kind of sinister end to the chain of thought.

Let’s try some simple variations on this pattern. Write a claim in one sentence, and then two more sentences that provide evidence, with the last one making a sinister twist.

My house was the biggest on the block. It had swimming pools and tennis courts. It had a dungeon.

Mostly my brothers were fools. One was lazy and the other one was stupid. Both of them were greedy.

The customers were sophisticated. They bought clothing from the past and furniture from the future. They were not interested in the present.

Write your own variation.
Write another one.