Writing a Well-Developed Paragraph
A paragraph is a group of sentences within a larger body of text. They are what makes your writing progress from beginning to end. Below, we’ll go over how to write the perfect paragraph.
What Is a Paragraph?
We’ve covered how to write an introduction and how to write a conclusion. In this article, we will teach you how to write a good paragraph. But first, let’s go over what a paragraph is.
A paragraph is a small body of text within a larger body that revolves around one particular main idea. Because there are various styles of writing—creative, journalistic, and narrative, to name a few—paragraphs can look and read differently depending on the text. However, they all serve the same function: to help advance your writing.
How Long Is a Paragraph?
It is not uncommon for grade school students to learn that a proper paragraph entails at least five sentences. This isn’t necessarily true, though. A single paragraph can range from one sentence to five, ten, or even more. Single-sentence paragraphs are especially common in journalistic writing. But what makes a paragraph, well, a paragraph, is that it revolves around a central idea before moving on to the next.
Paragraphs range in size depending on the complexity of the topic. And although this isn’t one-size-fits-all advice, writing guides often recommend shorter paragraphs over longer ones. A break between paragraphs can serve as a small pause, or rest, for the reader. Learning how to break a paragraph strategically even if you’re not done writing about the main point takes practice. If you can take the main point of the paragraph and break it into smaller points, do that (like how we broke this section about paragraph size into two paragraphs).
How To Write a Paragraph
Well-developed paragraphs are important. While the introduction prepares the readers for what you’re going to write about, the paragraphs are where you get to support your claims or the central idea of the text.
Here you’ll find a few tips that’ll help you write the perfect paragraph:
1. Choose the main idea of the paragraph and write a topic sentence.
Once you decide what the central focus of a particular paragraph will be about, introduce it with a topic sentence. Think of topic sentences as a signpost that guides your readers so that they know what to expect. The best place for a topic sentence is at the beginning of a paragraph.
2. Include supporting sentences.
After you’ve written your topic sentence, you should then write supporting sentences—sentences that help prove or establish that point you’re trying to make. These sentences vary depending on the type of writing, but they can include examples, explanations of examples, anecdotes, data, or anything else that’ll help the reader understand your message.
3. Improve flow and readability with transition sentences.
Once you’ve written the supporting sentences, then you should signal to the reader that you’re about to move on to the next point. You can do this with transition words or transition sentences. An abrupt change of topic can confuse readers, so it’s better to seamlessly move on to the next paragraph.
Example Paragraph Using The Tips Above
This is an example paragraph that uses all the previously mentioned tips:
How To Write Proper Paragraphs
Think of paragraphs as the glue that holds your writing together. Without them, sentences would just be floating around at random, and your readers would be forced to try to make sense of them. As with any other piece of writing, enough time should be allotted when writing paragraphs. Remember to include a topic sentence, add supporting sentences, and smoothly transition to the next paragraph.
