Paragraph Writing

Crafting a Paragraph
In a way, you could see each paragraph as a mini-essay.
• You introduce the topic
• You provide the contributing information
• You draw a conclusion
But how do you know if you have crafted a good paragraph?
It will have four characteristics:
• Unity
• Order
• Coherence
• Completeness
You achieve these four characteristics through using the
three parts of your paragraph wisely and with forethought.

First Sentence
The first sentence in a paragraph is important, and it’s called
the “topic sentence.” It should represent the overall idea that
governs the rest of the paragraph’s content. It’s the sames
as your essay introduction leads into your essay. All the
sentences that follow will contribute to this topic sentence.
For example, in this paragraph, I began by telling you that
the paragraph starts with a topic sentence. Now I am telling
you what it is for, and how it relates to the other sentences
in the paragraph. If you do this well, you’ll achieve the first of
our characteristics: unity.
Contributing Sentences
Your contributing sentences must lead logically to the
concluding one. This means you need to present it in some
kind of order. Will you choose chronological order, order of
importance, or relate each successive sentence to the other
using logic? That depends on what you are writing about,
but your aim is to make your paragraph easy to follow from
point A to point B to point C. Finally, you want to tie all your
points together to underline the point you are trying to get
across. Order helps to convey the sense of what you are
saying. If you confuse your reader, you have not written a
clever paragraph.
Order Should Bring Coherence
Have you ever listened to someone talking, and it sounds
like they’re just babbling and not making any sense? They
are speaking incoherently. When a person speaks
coherently, each thought follows neatly from the previous
one, and it is easy to understand what they are saying.
Although it’s not a must, using transition words helps to
show how one thought relates to another. There are many
such words and phrases which include:
• Because
• In addition
• By contrast
• Next
• Afterward
• Accordingly
• No doubt
• Of course
• On the other hand
• Naturally
• Also
 • After
• Before
Another important trick to remember is to keep all your
sentences in the same verb tense. It just makes it so much
easier for your reader to follow your thoughts.

Your Concluding Sentence

Don’t leave your reader wondering “So… what?” at the end
of your paragraph. Pull your threads together into a
concluding sentence. It should support your introductory
sentence while acknowledging what you have discussed in
the supporting sentences. This helps your reader to see
how the supporting information relates to the topic. You may
think it is obvious, but your reader may not!

Practice
Writing a really good paragraph is something of an art, but
like any skill, you can learn it through practice. That’s why
teachers will set paragraph writing tasks for their students.
But if you love writing, or just want to improve your writing
skills, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t set yourself a few
tasks. Choose from a list of paragraph writing prompts, or
make up a list of your own.
Here are some ideas:
• Why I enjoy my hobby so much
• My favorite winter activity
• My opinion on _________ (Choose anything you like)
• Why I hope to become a ___________
• I think the most important thing about a person is
__________
• Why I admire my best friend
• My favorite season is ___________
 • My most embarrassing moment was when_________
• The thing I’m most scared of
• What I dreamed last night
Remember, keep it to one paragraph! After you’ve written it,
leave it for a while because it’s hard to evaluate your own
work right away. Later, go and look at your exercise. Ask
yourself:
• What is my opening sentence?
• Do my other points support it?
• Did I reach a conclusion, and does it match the opening
sentence and the supporting ones?
• Have I presented my information in a logical way?
Could I have done it better?