Lesson Topic 2: Building Strong Paragraphs

text annotation indicator It can be helpful to see paragraphs as blocks of text used for organizing information--both for themselves and for their readers. Most paragraphs, particularly in academic writing, set out to develop one concept important to the overall piece of writing; typically all of the sentences in a paragraph serve to develop one idea.

A paragraph is a series of sentences that are organized and coherent and are all related to a single topic. Almost every piece of writing longer than a few sentences should be organized into paragraphs. This is because paragraphs show a reader where the subdivisions of an essay begin and end, and thus help the reader see the organization of the essay and grasp its main points.

A well-organized paragraph supports or develops a single controlling idea, which is expressed in a sentence called the topic sentence. A topic sentence has several important functions: it substantiates or supports an essay's thesis statement, it unifies the content of a paragraph and directs the order of the sentences, and it advises the reader of the subject to be discussed and how the paragraph will discuss it.

Readers generally look to the first few sentences in a paragraph to determine the subject and perspective of the paragraph. That is why the topic sentence is placed at the very beginning of the paragraph. In some cases, however, it is more effective to place another sentence before the topic sentence, for example, a sentence linking the current paragraph to the previous one or a sentence providing background information.

Most paragraphs in an essay have a three-part structure: introduction, body, and conclusion. This structure is found in paragraphs, whether they are narrating, describing, comparing, contrasting, or analyzing information. Each part of the paragraph plays an important role in communicating the meaning to the reader.

Let's take a closer look at the structure of a sample paragraph:

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