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Mastering Good Paragraph Writing

The document provides guidance on how to write a good paragraph. It explains that the first sentence should be the topic sentence that represents the overall idea of the paragraph. The following sentences should contribute to and support the topic sentence. Order and coherence are also important - the contributing sentences should flow logically from one to the next using transition words and maintaining the same verb tense. The paragraph should conclude by tying the supporting details back to the introductory topic sentence.

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Zineb Bouzaid
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97 views2 pages

Mastering Good Paragraph Writing

The document provides guidance on how to write a good paragraph. It explains that the first sentence should be the topic sentence that represents the overall idea of the paragraph. The following sentences should contribute to and support the topic sentence. Order and coherence are also important - the contributing sentences should flow logically from one to the next using transition words and maintaining the same verb tense. The paragraph should conclude by tying the supporting details back to the introductory topic sentence.

Uploaded by

Zineb Bouzaid
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Paragraph Writing: How to Write a Good

Paragraph
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 same as your essay introduction. 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 or supporting 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!

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