Identifying Methods of Paragraph Development

For each of the following paragraphs, write a sentence stating the main idea in your own words in the first space. In the second space, write the predominant method of development. Here again are the methods of development taken up in Chapter 3:

• facts and statistics
• example and illustration
• process (specify directive or informative)
• comparison and contrast

1			. . . For all our restraint-and our unwillingness to take chances or to move beyond the carefully configured boundaries of the farm-we were daredevils, living routinely with risk. My family operated on the edge. We lived with fire, electric storms, twisters. We drove on icy roads in cards with bald tires, low brake fluid, and cracked steering. We occupied a world without snowplows and seat belts and smoke alarms and lightning rods. (Daddy claimed lightning rods drew lightning.) We heated water in the bathtub with an immersible electric heater. Could you touch the water to find out if it was warm? We weren't sure. An electric space heater with a frayed cord sat beside the tub. LaNelle picked it up once from within the tub but for some reason did not get electrocuted. We ran barefooted over thorns, broken glass, and rusty cans. We nicked our legs on rusty barbed wire. The woodstoves had faulty flues, the porch steps had broken boards. Spiders grabbed our faces in the night; they inched under the sheets and prowled along our legs. We risked ticks, snapping turtles, diphtheria, measles, blood poisoning, "hydrophobie" (rabies). --Bobbie Ann Mason, Clear Springs In the box below, please identify the main idea and method of development.
2			When the players have it right, the dance at the coffee counter moves like a well-timed samba. The customer rattles off a 16-word order, and the barista has the espresso machine running and is making change without missing a beat. For novices, however, the exchange is as awkward as a junior high slow dance. Although the uninitiated can refer to the side of a Starbucks cup for instructions on how to order, here's a primer. The key is sequence. 1. special additions/caffeine amount 2. size 3. customization 4. milk type 5. drink type The simplest order is size plus type of drink. You want a small coffee? Say "tall drip." (Grande is medium; venti is large.) The name of the drink is always the last word. . . . Following the size come descriptions relating to syrup, milk and customization, also in that order. If you want to add a flavor like hazelnut, Irish cream, raspberry, etc., list it just after the size but before the drink name, as in "tall hazelnut drip." . . . Finally, any other customization you'd like, such as extra hot, 140 (as in degrees), no foam, or half Equal goes just before the drink name. Still feeling tongue-tied? Go to the slowest register and ask for help, suggested one manager. It just takes a little confidence before you, too, can say "triple decaf venti nonfat hazelnut no foam caramel macchiato." --Marnell Jameson, "The Art of the Coffee Order," Los Angeles Times In the box below, please identify the main idea and method of development.
3			In the making of waves, first the air "deforms" the water, which then begins to "perturb" the flow of air across it; and it is out of this delicate intercourse between the elements that a wave is born. As the ripple turns into a wavelet, its slight convexity gives the wind something to shove against, and soon the wavelet develops a leeward face and a windward back, with a growing differential between the weak air pressure in front and the strong air pressure behind. The unstable air, given these sudden inequalities of pressure, helps the wave (as it is now) to climb; the water's line of least resistance is to go upward as the energy in the wind is transferred to the sea. --Jonathan Rabin, Passage to Juneau In the box below, please identify the main idea and method of development.
4			Even when animals speak our language, humans do not always take them at their word. For sixteen years Alex, an African grey parrot, has been trained by psychologist Irene Pepperberg, who researches the bird's cognitive abilities. Alex is one of the few parrots in the world who has been demonstrated to understand the meaning of the words he speaks. He knows the names of fifty objects, seven colors, and five shapes. He can enumerate up to six objects and say which of two objects is smaller. Alex has also picked up many "functional" phrases. He has learned "I'm gonna go now," something he hears people say in Pepperberg's laboratory. Pepperberg describes how, when Alex is scolded, "We say, 'No! Bad boy!' We walk out. And he knows what to say contextually, applicably. He brings us back in by saying, 'Come here! I'm sorry!'" Alex learned to say he was sorry by hearing humans say it. He knows when to say it. Does he feel regret? "He bites, he says, 'I'm sorry' and he bites again," says Pepperberg, somewhat irritably. "There's no contrition!" Just like many people. --Jeffrey Masson and Susan McCarthy, When Elephants Weep In the box below, please identify the main idea and method of development.
5			E. Perhaps the most significant difference between Disney World and earlier amusement parks is in opportunities for direct participation in the "events" and construction of their meaning. One of the chief motivations for visiting Coney1 and the primary focus of attacks against it was that the place was a relatively unregulated social setting. The rides encouraged, indeed required, close physical contact, frequently between strangers, and made the spectacle of their interaction the object of entertainment for other visitors waiting to board. Part of the fun of Coney was to watch people embarrass themselves, usually in some physical way-falling onto or being jostled against each other, clothes flying up, etc.-before becoming yourself the embarrassed object of their fun. The heightened sense of sexual opportunity inherent in this situation was augmented by the feeling throughout the park and confirmed by its visitors that it was always open season for dating, casual encounters, or sexual fantasy. If fantasy is one of several "lands" in Disney World, it was the norm at Coney Island. John Kasson documents examples of young women visiting Coney Island in the guise of bourgeois ladies rather than the mundane office or factory workers they were and, once there, either pursuing relationships befitting their new station or working a bit of class privilege on the men and women with whom they would otherwise be associated.At Walt Disney world, such contact with other people is only minimally available and not at all desirable. Most of the rides are intentionally designed to disallow seeing anyone-much less touching or talking to them-other than who you're sitting immediately next to and probably came with. (Those who visit the park alone, as I have, are typically kept separate and alone.) As Margaret King has noted, the vehicles turn on cue, focusing attention away from other people and toward whatever new screen or display is next in line. It is often impossible to see anything other than what the car's perspective affords, and the theater-like darkness reinforces the feeling that one is essentially watching a movie alone. Consistent with the park's often noted goal of using architecture and layout to control and ultimately inhibit movement, all the attractions force visitors to watch the programmed movements of Audio-Animatronic robots while remaining themselves immobilized. --Jane Kuenz, Inside the Mouse: Work and Play at Disney World In the box below, please identify the main idea and method of development.
6			F. We all delight in acquiring new things, but seldom do we consider the resulting ripple effect described by 18th-century French philosopher Denis Diderot. In an essay entitled "Regrets on Parting with My Old Dressing Gown," he wrote about receiving as a gift a beautiful scarlet dressing gown, then quickly discarding his old one. But as he began to sense that his surroundings now appeared shabby and unworthy of the grandeur exuded by the new garment, his pleasure turned sour. As Juliet Schor recounts, "He grew dissatisfied with his study, with its threadbare tapestry, the desk, his chairs, and even the room's bookshelves. One by one, the familiar but well-worn furnishings of the study were replaced. In the end, Diderot found himself seated uncomfortably in the stylish formality of his new surroundings, regretting the work of this 'imperious scarlet robe [that] forced everything else to conform with its own elegant tone.' "Schor calls this "the Diderot effect": the perceived need to buy new furniture for the new house, new goblets to go with the new china, a new blouse to match the new skirt. And it's what keeps the consumer escalator moving ever upward. If we want to get off, we need to develop a new consumer consciousness and new behaviors, and this may be harder than it sounds. --Cathy Madison, "Don't Buy These Myths," The Utne Reader In the box below, please identify the main idea and method of development.