What is a paragraph?

A paragraph is a group of sentences that revolves around one subject or area. Each sentence in
the paragraph must give information about the topic.
Components of the paragraph:
An argumentative paragraph should consist of three major elements:
1. A topic sentence: It is the first sentence of a paragraph, and it summarizes its main
idea. Good topic sentences should always contain both (1) a topic (The main subject
matter or idea covered in the paragraph ) and (2) a controlling idea (an idea that
focuses the topic by providing direction to the composition.
Examples:
 There are several advantages to online education.
Controlling idea The topic
 Effective leadershiprequires specific qualities that anyone can develop.
The topic controlling idea

2. Supporting sentences/details: They come after the topic sentence, making up the
body of a paragraph and seek to give details to develop and support the main idea of
the paragraph. You can support your topic sentence with:
 Facts (scientific, historic, …), details, reasons, examples;
 Information from the readings or class discussions;
 Paraphrases or short quotations;
 Statistics, polls, percentages, data from research studies;
 Personal experience, stories, anecdotes, examples from your life.
3. A closing sentence: It is the last sentence of your paragraph where you summarize
the paragraph by restating the topic sentence.