Topic Sentence =

Selena Quintanilla's story is both inspiring and tragic.

Explanation: This sentence tells us this paragraph is about the life of Selena Quintanilla. The author's point-of-view is that it is "both inspiring and tragic." The rest of the paragraph builds on this, explaining elements of her life that were inspiring and those that were tragic.

Major Supporting Sentences = When she was very young, Selena sang in English in her father's band. As a teenager, she started singing Tejano music in Spanish. Selena's new Tejano music became very popular and successful, and she was ready to release an album in English. However, she was murdered right before the album's release. After it was released, her album sold 175,000 copies in a single day, becoming one of the best-selling albums in history.

Explanation: Notice that these sentences all tell us details about Selena's life. The one sentence that shows tragedy is, "However, she was murdered right before the album's release." Before this sentence, the author focuses only on the inspirational elements of her story. The transition word "However," shows contrast, meaning the author is shifting from the inspirational elements to the tragic part. The final inspirational detail is after the tragedy, found in "After it was released, her album sold 175,000 copies in a single day, becoming one of the best-selling albums in history." All these work together to create a solid paragraph focused on her story.

Minor Supporting Sentence: Tejano literally means "Texan," but it has come to represent a culture of Mexican Americans.

This is the one minor support, giving specific information about the meaning of Tejano in case the reader is ignorant of its meaning.

Conclusion:

At twenty-four, Selena experienced almost simultaneous death and stardom.

Explanation: Notice this is a re-statement of the topic sentence, being more specific about what is inspirational (stardom) and what is tragic (death). It wraps up the paragraph clearly.

Transitions: In this paragraph, there are only a few. You could focus on the second sentence that says, "When she was very young," stating when this inspiring story began. The story continues in the next sentence, stating, "As a teenager." As mentioned before, the word "However" shows contrast, noting the tragic end to her life. Finally, you could note that the phrase "After it was released" shifts the reader back to the inspiration and leads to the conclusion.