28. COMPOSITION – Paragraph Writing
February 21, 2010 by admin
Filed under English I, English II, English III
WRITING A PARAGRAPH
A paragraph is a series of sentences that develops a single idea or topic. You can write paragraph for many purposes, such as explaining how to do something or telling story. The sentences in a paragraph must relate to a single topic. A group of sentences about more than one topic is not a paragraph. Most paragraphs are made up of supporting sentences and a concluding sentence.
A topic sentence states the main idea of a paragraph. Whenever you write your readers must know exactly what your topic is. In writing a paragraph you state your topic sentence at the beginning of a paragraph so that the reader will know right away what the paragraph is about.
Explain or develop what is stated in the topic sentence. You may need as few as three or as many as ten supporting sentences in a paragraph. In each supporting sentence you give supporting information or details related to the main idea.
A paragraph may also have a concluding sentence to bring it to a close. In a concluding Sentence you may summarize the supporting sentences or state a conclusion about the main idea.
Tips:
Unity: A good paragraph consist unity of thoughts and expression. Each paragraph must deal with single topic or idea. The sentences grouped together must be closely connected to the topic.
Coherence: There should be logical sequence of thoughts in a paragraph. They should be arranged in orderly and natural order so that continuity is maintained.
Conclusion: A paragraph must end with a conclusion. Abrupt and unfinished paragraph leave no good impressions.
- A topic sentence forms the base which should state the central idea of paragraph.
- A paragraph should not be monotonous. The sentences should. Vary in size, composition and construction.
To maintain relationship with persons, sentence and following sentence use certain connection words conclusion about the main idea.
Paragraph Writing
Students sometimes think all paragraphs are organized the same way. That’s not the case. The information in the initial post here applies only to stand-alone or body paragraphs of a longer work, not to an introduction or ending paragraph.
The process for explaining or developing an idea in a body paragraph is what I call the evidence waltz. The evidence waltz has three steps:
–Prepare the reader to receive the evidence.
–Present the evidence.
–Pull out the significance of the evidence for the reader.
People do this process naturally in speech, but often in writing forget to prepare for the evidence or pull out its significance.
Paragraph development is discussed at http://www.you-can-teach-writing.com/exposition-writing.html
Linda we thank you and appreciate your suggestions. We will update this post as soon as possible.