Writing Effective Paragraphs
What Is a
Paragraph?
WRIT 1044
What Is a
Paragraph?
Paragraphs are clusters of information supporting an essay’s main point (in works of fiction, they advance the action or develop the characters). Paragraphs need to be clearly focused, well developed,
organized, coherent, and a manageable length – generally 5-8 sentences.
See page 81 in your textbook!
How Do You
Begin?
Each paragraph should begin with what is called a topic sentence – a one-sentence summary of the argument to be pursued in the remainder of the paragraph.
How Do You
Begin?
More advanced writers sometimes move the topic sentence around, and some paragraphs are clearly developing a point that was raised in an earlier paragraph, but for now, you should aim to begin each paragraph with a topic sentence.
Don’t get cute.
Organizing
Paragraphs
There is no “right” way to organize a paragraph, but certain patterns do recur, and some are better suited to
certain rhetorical situations than others.
Your textbook suggests that there are seven possible ways to develop your topic: tell a story, define your topic, use examples, use a quotation or paraphrase, use a comparison, explain steps or stages in a process, or provide specific details.
Paragraph
Coherence
Each sentence within a paragraph, and indeed, each paragraph within an essay, must be coherent – that is, they must
flow from one to the next without any abrupt or jarring shifts.
Coherence can be improved by strengthening the links between each piece of information.
Linking Ideas
Clearly
Each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence, and the body of the paragraph should provide specific facts, details, or examples that feed into and support that topic sentence in one way or another (either linking back to the topic
sentence itself or to another sentence within the paragraph). Linking Ideas
Clearly
The first paragraph on page 90 of your text is
Paragraph?
WRIT 1044
What Is a
Paragraph?
Paragraphs are clusters of information supporting an essay’s main point (in works of fiction, they advance the action or develop the characters). Paragraphs need to be clearly focused, well developed,
organized, coherent, and a manageable length – generally 5-8 sentences.
See page 81 in your textbook!
How Do You
Begin?
Each paragraph should begin with what is called a topic sentence – a one-sentence summary of the argument to be pursued in the remainder of the paragraph.
How Do You
Begin?
More advanced writers sometimes move the topic sentence around, and some paragraphs are clearly developing a point that was raised in an earlier paragraph, but for now, you should aim to begin each paragraph with a topic sentence.
Don’t get cute.
Organizing
Paragraphs
There is no “right” way to organize a paragraph, but certain patterns do recur, and some are better suited to
certain rhetorical situations than others.
Your textbook suggests that there are seven possible ways to develop your topic: tell a story, define your topic, use examples, use a quotation or paraphrase, use a comparison, explain steps or stages in a process, or provide specific details.
Paragraph
Coherence
Each sentence within a paragraph, and indeed, each paragraph within an essay, must be coherent – that is, they must
flow from one to the next without any abrupt or jarring shifts.
Coherence can be improved by strengthening the links between each piece of information.
Linking Ideas
Clearly
Each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence, and the body of the paragraph should provide specific facts, details, or examples that feed into and support that topic sentence in one way or another (either linking back to the topic
sentence itself or to another sentence within the paragraph). Linking Ideas
Clearly
The first paragraph on page 90 of your text is