Support

The bulk of your paragraph will normally be devoted to presenting evidence in support of your topic sentence. The evidence may be in the form of a fact, a quotation, or some other bit of evidence extracted from your research in the primary and secondary sources.

What is most striking about the grievances made by air traffic controllers before, during, and after the walkout, is the dramatic language they used to express their concerns.

In 1981 congressional hearings, Poli responded to an attack on the legitimacy of PATCO's demands by saying that controllers "are not starving, but they are starving for a working condition that does not leave them destroyed individuals when they leave the job after 14, 15, 16 years."

Dennis Lebeau, striking after twelve years as an ATC, simply said, "it's our lives at stake and they're worth the sacrifice."

The wife of a 28-year old traffic controller in Chicago explained that the strike was not simply a matter of principle but a "matter of survival."

In 1984 a striker wrote that "given the same set of circumstances at any given time, I would do it again. There is no doubt history will prove PATCO was right in their actions. Maybe legally wrong, but surely morally right."

A placard carried during the strike read: "We're on strike against (F)ear, (A)ntagonism, and
(A)dversary."