Sample Body Paragraph

While the loss of innocent life during the My Lai Massacre is horrifying, the tragic misconduct of the United States did not stop when the gunfire stopped. [WCSD1]Instead, the military continued to act inappropriately after the fighting ended as platoon leaders sought to keep the soldiers who were at My Lai confused as to what actually happened.[WCSD2] Author Mark Gado illustrates this by revealing that the morning after the massacre the soldiers involved in the fighting were deliberately separated from one another so that they could not discuss the amount of killing and other events that occurred at My Lai (Gado 19).[WCSD3] By purposefully keeping the members of Calley’s platoon separated from one another, none of the soldiers could compare accounts of their actions or realize the full extent of what they had done[WCSD4]. Additionally, this need to conceal the truth is seen even in the investigation performed by the Criminal Investigation Division of the U.S Military.[WCSD5] In the Peers Report, an official investigation by Washington D.C. of the My Lai Massacre, officials stated that “it appears to have been little more than a pretense of an investigation and had as their goal the suppression of the true facts concerning the events of 16 March” (“Peers Report” 190). [WCSD6]This report hints that the military sought numerous ways to control and disguise the information being sent out about My Lai.[WCSD7] Furthermore, the Peers Report goes on to illustrate how the incident was first of all labeled as a result of enemy artillery fire and that only 370 people were killed.[WCSD8] This figure was deliberately misstated, and the true number of casualties was closer to 503- more than a hundred of which were women and children (Gado 19).[WCSD9] The Criminal Investigation Division deliberately lied to the U.S. Government, the media, and the government of North Vietnam about the events of the My Lai Massacre in order to preserve their own reputation[WCSD10]. In effect, the CID covered up the murder of innocent people, an act that is absolutely inappropriate[WCSD11].

[WCSD1]Topic Sentence

[WCSD2]Setup of paraphrase

[WCSD3]Paraphrase of evidence

[WCSD4]Explanation of evidence

[WCSD5]Setup of next piece of evidence (a quote)

[WCSD6]Quote of evidence—notice how this is incorporated into a sentence, not standing alone

[WCSD7]Explanation of quote

[WCSD8]Set-up of next piece of evidence (notice the transition!)

[WCSD9]Paraphrase of evidence

[WCSD10]Explanation of evidence

[WCSD11]Concluding sentence—sums up topic of paragraph