The Body Paragraph:

Body paragraphs are the real meat of your essay so be sure to put something in there for your audience to chew on. No more of that vacuous 3-5 sentence stuff from elementary school. In a high school academic paper, you should have at least 6-8 solid sentences.

Start with a topic sentence, then support it with evidence: a fact, statistic, anecdote, or quote, add some logical commentary on your support (warrant and grounds), then transition to your next piece of supporting evidence and repeat as necessary until your topic is proven enough to move on to your next topic and next body paragraph. Check out this example:

Video games provide kids with a platform to learn how to problem solve and adapt in order to reach a goal. In fact, there are dozens and dozens of positive impacts of video games on cognitive development, for example: “The player cannot get through with what they already have or know and must find new combinations and incorporate old skills with new skills to overcome obstacles [ . . . ] (Gee, 2003). In relation to this, the player can also learn strategy and anticipation, management of resources (simulation games), mapping, pattern recognition, how to judge the situation and practice reading (with directions, dialogue, etc.) and quantitative calculations [ . . . ] (Tumbokon, 2014)” (Dai and Fry). Simple games like Angry Birds or Cut the Rope teach younger kids how to solve puzzles with immediate feedback (Tumbokon). In a role playing game like Sims or World of Warcraft, older kids have to learn how to balance responsibility and resources on a larger, more sophisticated scale. Even those demonized first person shooter games like Call of Duty increase kids mapping abilities and fine motor skills needed in things like surgery. “Simone Kuhn, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, has found that the prefrontal cortex actually grows thicker and gray matter more voluminousin people who play games as humble as ‘Super Mario 64,’ changes that could improve memory and navigational ability” (Keilman). With GPS programs on every phone, almost no one really uses a map anymore and video games are filling in that gap in cognitive development. As video games evolve, furthermore, so does the complicated problems that need to be solved and the level of skill required by the gamer. Often times, it simply cannot be done alone.