Lesson 4: The structure of an academic paragraph
Lesson aims:
• Examine different types of communicative functions of paragraphs
• Examine the structural components of an academic paragraph
• Understand the purpose of each of these main parts of an academic
paragraph
• Practise writing a paragraph
Prepare for class
Thorough preparation before class helps you understand the content discussed in class, and
enables you to contribute to the various discussions and tasks given in class.
Complete this section on your own before class.
Academic paragraphs are not merely a number of sentences stringed together, but should
function as a communicative unit. When we say a paragraph is a communicative unit, we are
saying that in each paragraph, the writer (you) should try to communicate a central idea and
elaborate on that idea using a number of different strategies. The paragraph should also fit in
with the rest of the paragraphs and the main aims of the piece of writing as a whole (but that
is a lesson for a different day).
Task
To be able to write an academic paragraph that makes sense, it is important to know that the
paragraph should consist of certain components. In this lesson, we will learn about these
components and practise writing them.
Watch the video by Dr. Cecilia Wadsö-Lecaros on the link below about the structuring of
paragraphs.
Link: [Link]
(The video is also available on Blackboard.)
We have provided a grid below to help you take notes of important information. To complete
this task, do the following:
• Make notes of the information about the nature of an academic paragraph in the top
block.
• Write down the names of the three components of an academic paragraph in the first
column.
• Take notes of the purpose and other details of each component in the second column.
What is an academic paragraph?
What are the structural components of an Notes about component (you could include its
academic paragraph? (Write down their purpose, how to write it, and any other relevant
names below) information)
In class
Task 1
Look at the paragraphs below and try to identify the three different parts of a paragraph, by
highlighting or underlining these components. Try to give these components names.
An example has been provided for you.
The first reason why divorce is so stressful is the emotional torment people experience when
going through divorce (topic sentence). Seal (2012:10) argues that the reason events are
stressful is that “they threaten our accustomed way of life”. Suddenly there is no longer
another human being to rely on. Even though a partner may not have been the kindest of
people, this still takes its toll. In addition, a person may be the sole support system for
children. Juggling work and children and fulfilling two parental roles may become an
emotional strain (supporting sentences). Therefore, this shows that divorce is an incredibly
stressful event to go through (concluding sentence).
Now, it is your turn. Indicate the three components of each paragraph.
Paragraph 1
Notes Sample paragraph Notes
Assignment essay tasks are set to assist students to
develop mastery of their study subject. Firstly, assignment
tasks enhance understandings about subject matter. Yang
and Baker (2005: 1) reason that “to master your learning
materials and extend your understandings, you need to
write about the meanings you gain from your research”.
Secondly, research (Jinx, 2004; Zapper, 2006) clearly
demonstrates that students learn the writing conventions
of a subject area while they are researching, reading and
writing in their discipline. This activity helps them to “crack
the code” of the discipline (Bloggs, 2003: 44). Thus,
students are learning subject matter and how to write in
that disciplinary area by researching and writing
assignment essays.
([Link]
course/paragraphs/academic-paragraphs/)
Paragraph 2
Notes Sample paragraph Notes
The notion of ubuntu/botho, understood as personhood
and morality, is at the heart of my argument in this article.
It is my view that personhood is linked to humane conduct,
and that humane conduct is synonymous with good moral
conduct. Concurrently, good moral conduct implies
treating others at all times with fairness, dignity and justice.
Therefore, good moral conduct is predicated on individuals
reasoning about their intended actions and making rational
choices to act in a particular way, and to avoid acting in
other ways that might be deemed to be an affront to good
moral conduct.
(Letseka, M. 2013. Educating for Ubuntu/Botho: Lessons from Basotho
Indigenous Education. Open Journal of Philosophy. 3. 337-344.)
Components of a paragraph
Now, let’s unpack the components of an academic paragraph in detail.
What is an academic paragraph?
• Academic paragraphs are the body paragraphs of an essay and account for
about 90% of the entire essay.
• They may also be the structure of short answer questions in other types of writing
(e.g. exams).
• Academic paragraphs contain the points you want to make with the supporting
arguments and evidence for those points.
• Often, paragraphs are about a single idea, issue or topic and we can refer to
paragraphs as ‘units of meaning’.
• Paragraphs are usually made up of three parts, namely a topic sentence, supporting
sentences, and concluding sentence.
Thus,
• An academic paragraph is a group of sentences that ‘talk’ about one idea, within a
larger text.
Components of a paragraph
We can now all agree that the main components of an academic paragraph are:
• Topic Sentence (TS): Contains the main idea of the paragraph.
o Structure: Topic + comment
• Supporting ideas (SI): Elaborate on the TS, by providing evidence and examples
to support the main idea of the paragraph. You should include at least three SI per
paragraph.
• Concluding sentence: The concluding sentence of a paragraph could serve three
purposes:
o to summarise the argument you made in that paragraph;
o to provide a clear link to your answer to your essay brief (thesis statement);
o to link to the subsequent paragraph.
Topic sentences
A paragraph can be seen as a number of sentences that revolve around a central idea. This
idea is usually expressed in the topic sentence that is usually the first or second sentence.
The sentences that follow are supposed to develop this central idea by giving details,
explanations, examples, etc.
What does a good topic sentence look like?
A good topic sentence consists of two parts, namely,
1. a topic, and
2. a main idea or commentary about the topic.
The topic mentions the general theme of the paragraph while the main idea or commentary
suggest the specific focus within that theme.
Examples of good topic sentences:
• Feedback on assessment tasks (Topic) should be detailed and descriptive (main
idea/commentary).
• An advantage to using essay writing as a form of assessment (Topic) is that it leaves
room for personal expression (commentary/main idea – in this case, discussed as
an advantage).
• A variety of assessment methods (topic with a focus on variety) should be used to
accommodate learners with different learning styles (commentary/main idea).
Examples of bad topic sentences:
• I think this is a disadvantage. (What is the topic?)
• The first point of discussion is learning styles. (Not commentary/main idea. What
about learning styles?)
Here are some characteristics of a topic sentence:
The meaning of the topic sentence should be clear and concise and it should not
include information that actually forms part of the supporting sentences. It should be the
starting point for the paragraph and you should not provide your examples and arguments
in the topic sentence yet.
A topic sentence usually takes the form of a statement sentence. Occasionally,
experienced writers use a question or a question that is constructed as a statement, as a
topic sentence. See the examples of these three formats below. It is important to remember
that this format should not be used too often and should only be used if you have mastered
statement sentence topic sentences.
Topic sentence (TS) as statement:
• Lack of discipline in the classroom has several causes.
Topic sentence as question:
• What are the causes of a lack of discipline in the classroom?
Topic sentence – question phrased as statement:
• The question of what causes a lack of discipline in the classroom remains an
important one.
A topic sentence should be a full sentence/completed idea. You can read your topic
sentence out loud to determine if it is a full sentence. Often, it is easier to identify
grammatical issues when you read a text out loud than when you read it silently.
Each paragraph should only have one main idea – a new main idea should be
presented as a new paragraph with its own topic sentence. If you are struggling to
formulate a topic sentence for your paragraph because it seems that there are too many
things you would like to say, it might be a good idea to assess the content of your paragraph
to see if it should not be split into two or more paragraphs, each with its own topic sentence.
What if you have to start writing a paragraph, but you are unsure about where to start? A
planning outline could help you organise your information and ideas. For the purpose of this
exercise, let us assume you want to plan and write a paragraph that discusses ‘Divorce: The
most stressful life’.
Read the paragraph below and plot the three components in the outline table provided.
Secondly, divorce is financially stressful. For example, after divorce, a woman may be left
a single, working mother. It is her responsibility to earn a salary, put food on the table, and
still be there for her children with no one to help her. She must provide financially for the
family, and this could prove very stressful in a workplace that, according to statistics,
usually pays women less than men (Hide, 2013: 90). Thus, divorce can be financially
demanding and stressful.
Paragraph
Topic Sentence (Main
Idea)
Supporting 1
Body Paragraph One
Supporting 2
Supporting 3
Concluding Sentence
The hamburger visual below has often been used to explain the structure of an academic
paragraph. With a partner, discuss the usefulness of this analogy by considering the
following questions:
• Do you think the hamburger and its parts is an accurate analogy for an academic
paragraph? Why? Why not?
• In what way(s) are the ‘components’ of the hamburger similar to that of an
academic paragraph?
• I what way(s) are the ‘components’ of the hamburger different to that of an
academic paragraph?
You can take notes of your discussion in the space below. Be prepared to share your
thoughts with the class.
Task 2
In the previous activities, you were given paragraphs to work with; now, let us see if you can write
the different components of a paragraph based on the given brief and readings on your own.
• In this activity, we are going to plan a paragraph for a hypothetical essay.
• To help you with this, we are going to go through some steps to ensure that you can
respond appropriately to the hypothetical essay brief.
• First, we will provide the proposed thesis statement and topic sentence to help guide
your reading.
• Then, you will read the short texts in order to conceptualise your own response.
• Finally, you will complete a planning outline for the proposed paragraph.
Consider the essay brief below:
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: White feminism advocates for the rights
of all women?
Now, suppose you read some texts in order to write this essay (and made notes) and you
decided that your answer to the essay brief was:
Thesis statement 1: White feminism does not cater for the rights of all women.
You now have to start writing your essay, but you are unsure about where to start. A planning
outline could help you organise your information and ideas. For the purpose of this exercise, let
us assume you want to plan and write a paragraph that explains how ‘white feminism’ excludes
black women. Below is the blank planning outline for that paragraph. The topic sentence of the
paragraph has been included for you. You do not need to fill in the supporting information yet.
Paragraph 1
Topic Sentence (Main White feminism fails to notice the existence of women of colour,
Idea) hence it cannot cater for all women.
Supporting 1
Body Paragraph One
Supporting 2
Supporting 3
Concluding Sentence
• Read and take notes on the three short excerpts below. Highlight the information that
would be relevant for the above paragraph (based on the essay brief). Then, complete
the three blank spaces in the outline above by adding relevant supporting information.
Excerpt 1: Notes
Uwuajaren, J & Jamie, U. 2015. Why Our Feminism Must Be
Intersectional (And 3 Ways to Practice It). Everyday Feminism.
Available at:
[Link]
beintersectional/ [Accessed 21 May 2020].
When Annie Lennox, legendary Scottish singer from the
Eurythmics, recently declared that Beyoncé is not feminist with the
statement “Listen, twerking is not feminism,” she firmly established
herself as a representative for White feminism.
1
A thesis statement states the central idea of the essay.
What is “White feminism?” We’ll let Cate from Batty Mamzelle
define it for you:
“White feminism is a set of beliefs that allows for the exclusion of
issues that specifically affect women of colour. It is ‘one size-fits
all’ feminism, where middle class
White women are the mould that others must fit. It is a method of
practicing feminism, not an indictment of every individual White
feminist, everywhere, always.”
Now, Lennox likely doesn’t think of herself as a White feminist, but
by referring to Beyoncé’s feminism and expression as “disturbing,”
“exploitative,” and “troubling,” she expressed the politic many
White feminists are known for advancing:
“Feminism must look like we want it to look, or it’s not feminism.”
It’s usually not that overt, and most White feminists would deny
that this is what’s being said or done, but you notice it in more
subtle comments like “Why do you have to divide us by bringing up
race?” or “Are trans women really women?
There should be a distinction.”
Excerpt 2:
Frankenberg, R. 1993. Growing up White: Feminism, Racism and the
Social Geography of Childhood. Feminist Review, 45: 51–84. Available
at:
[Link]
[Accessed 15 January 2020].
My analysis underscores the idea that there is no place for us to stand
'outside' racism, any more than we can stand 'outside' sexism. In this
context, it seems foolish to imagine that as individuals we can escape
complicity with racism as a social system. We cannot, for example, simply
'give up' race privilege. I suggest that as white feminists we need to take
cognizance both of the embeddedness of racism in all aspects of society
and the ways this has shaped our own lives, theories and actions.
Concretely, this means work in at least three linked areas: work on re-
examining personal history and changing consciousness; thoroughgoing
theoretical transformation within feminism; and participation in practical
political work towards structural change.
Re-examining personal history is necessary in part because it is possible
that white feminists continue relating to people of colour, as well as doing
feminist work, on the basis of patterns and assumptions learned early on.
For example, there could be a connection between white women's 'not
noticing' people of colour in their childhood environments, and white
feminists' capacity to continue 'forgetting' to include women of colour in
the planning of conferences and events. This forgetting may, in other
words, be a socially constructed one.
Excerpt 3:
Breines, W. 1996. Sixties Stories’ Silences: White Feminism, Black
Feminism, Black Power. NWSA Journal, 8 (3): 101–121. Available
at: [Link]/stable/4316463 [Accessed 11 June 2020].
Wallace, the author of the controversial Black Macho and the Myth
of the Superwoman (1979), writes about the difficulties black
feminists have faced. She chronicles the sexism of black men in
the black-power days of the late 1960s and early 1970s when they
expected black women to serve and service them in traditional
feminine roles as compensation for their treatment by white
America. Wallace bitterly recounts the sexist treatment of black
women by black men in the black-power movement. She writes
bitterly, too, about the irrelevance of white feminism to black
feminism and of the hatred of white women that prevented black
women from becoming feminists. Wallace and bell hooks argue
that in numerous ways white feminists compounded the problems
faced by black women. Their class and race privileges often kept
them from comprehending, often from even trying to comprehend,
the specificities of black women's situations that were not
addressed by white women's privileging of sex as the source of
women's oppression. Many white feminists assumed their gender
interpretations were as relevant to black women, most of whom
came from working-class backgrounds, as they were to white
middle-class women. Thus black women who were sympathetic to
feminism were publicly more quiet than they might have been,
apparently finding no comfortable place for themselves in the
movements and eventually forming their own networks and
organizations.
Task 3
Based on the outline you did in Task 2 of this lesson, write a coherent paragraph in the space
provided below.
Keep the following in mind:
• The essay question.
• The essay answer (thesis statement).
• The topic of the paragraph. The paragraph will form part of the full essay.
• The information in the ‘sources’ (excerpts) – only include relevant information in your
paragraph!
• The transitional devices (connecting words) that will work best to structure your
argument.
Reflection
Reflect on the tasks in this lesson and answer the question below.
• What have you learned about assembling a paragraph by completing two planning
outlines for paragraphs?
End of Lesson Four.
