Paragraph structure

Paragraph structure

Paragraph length: for academic writing, most paragraphs run 4-7 sentences long, but these lengths can vary, especially in relation to sentence length. Paragraphs in popular writing (especially newspapers) generally run shorter, but not always.

Paragraph structure:

Topic sentence: Usually the first sentence (sometimes two sentences) of a paragraph. The topic sentence is usually a fairly long sentence because it has to perform three functions:

1. state main idea of paragraph

2. connect to the thesis or main point

3. provide transition from previous paragraph

Supporting Sentences:

These are usually the interior sentences of the paragraph. They “support” or develop the topic sentence

Content: facts, quotations, testimony, examples, analysis, commentary. In brief, the supporting sentences tend to be more concrete and particular, while the topic sentence tends to be more abstract or thematic and general.

(Optional) Summarizing Sentence:

If your paragraph becomes so long that its main idea or point may get lost on the way through the supporting sentences, try a concluding sentence that summarizes where you’ve arrived and returns to and refocuses the topic sentence.

Warning: Some students are taught to use the concluding sentence of a paragraph to make a transition to the next paragraph. Sometimes this works, but it generally violates standard practice. The need for transition is almost always felt after a paragraph shift rather than before.

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Creating & maintaining unity / continuity in writing

Why important?

Aesthetics: Readers like variety, but they also like to see parts forming a whole.

Depth / extension of thought: The longer you stay with a subject, the deeper or farther you go. Changing subjects frequently entails brief and superficial treatment of a lot of subjects—a lot of this and that.

How develop or maintain unity?

Two broad approaches

·     From the top down—intellectual approach

·     From the bottom up—technique or craft

From the top down: the intellectual approach of keeping a large theme or idea in sight, chasing it, and never letting it slip completely away, no matter how many twists and turns you take. “Pursue the thought.”

·     Whatever idea you start with, stay with it. If the subject has to change, reflect and comment on how it is changing.

·     Readers don’t mind shifts of direction as long as you acknowledge the change and think your way through it.

·     But what you started with remains important because it’s what your readers started with—the first impression that they won’t let go of and need to fill out.

·     Keep looking back at what you started with. Connect new developments to it. If you made the move from point A to point B, there has to be a connection, so think about the shift and how it happened. The connection or continuity will be revealed.

·     When shifting paragraphs, look back to what you started with and forward to where you’re going. Consider the continuity.

·     The top-down, intellectual approach is especially helpful for writing under pressure or on the spot, without much chance for revision.

From the bottom up: the “technique” or “craft” approach of making smaller connections between units of speech or thought—between paragraphs, sentences, parts of sentences.

·     This approach is most helpful in revision, but with practice you can learn to do it on the spot or under pressure.

The techniques involved in this approach are often called “transitions”

3 ways of making transition: (non-exclusive—all 3 may be in operation in a single unit of thought)

1. repetition of key words or concepts (Students are often taught not to repeat themselves, but some repetition is inevitable and desirable as a means of refocusing or centering the discussion. Public speakers repeat key words at intervals to remind people of what they’ve said or what they’re trying to say.)

2. demonstrative pronouns and adjectives (this, that, these, those; “such”)

3. “transitional” or “signal” words and phrases (most obvious forms of transition, but the first two are more thematic and subtle)

causation / logic: because, therefore, since, thus, as a result, consequently

contrast: but, however, yet, in contrast

sequence: then, next, following, before, etc.

addition: and, in addition, further, another, finally, first-second-third (be careful of this option—it’s often a sign of dull piling on of examples, which I may be doing now . . . )