What does a well written paragraph look like?

Think of the paragraph, not the sentence, as the basic unit of meaning in an academic text. A paragraph develops one idea, so the first sentence should introduce the point, issue or theme, which the rest of the sentences in the paragraph will develop, using evidence from sources, examples and illustrations.

How to write a good paragraph:

Make sure the start of your paragraphs begin with a strong topic sentence, a sentence whose overarching function is to provide the point, issue or theme that the rest of the sentences in the paragraph will explore in greater detail.

Each sentence in a paragraph flows from an idea in the previous sentence – for a more detailed explanation of how flow is created, look at linking ideas.

It is important to edit your draft because you don’t always start your paragraphs with good topic sentences in the first draft, as you are creating and playing with an idea for the first time. Sometimes the topic sentence is halfway down or at the end, or you have two sentences functioning as a topic sentence, essentially saying the same thing in two different ways. Therefore, during editing, you want to make sure each paragraph’s topic sentence is strong, at the start and you’ve eliminated repetition. A good test is to see if you can get the gist of your chapter/paper by just reading the topic sentences; this allows you to see if one idea flows to the next and whether the overall structure of your piece works.

Try to write topic sentences as writing prompts when planning a piece. As topic sentences indicate the ideas and topics you want to discuss, you may have some conception of what they may be before you start, i.e. you may have a list of bullet points or keywords you want to talk about. The trick is to try and turn these into topic sentences and think about the order in which you want to present them, mapping how one idea moves to the next. In this way you can create a good set of prompts to write too: having the topic sentences means you have a prompt to write to, to complete the rest of the paragraph. This is only an approach to help generate ideas and words on the page. Don’t feel constrained by early plans and drafts – once it is on the paper decide if you want to change it, subtract it, add to or rearrange it.

The principles above are illustrated in two sample paragraphs, which illustrate a number of important writing principles:

  • paragraph structure
  • use of sources
  • building analysis
  • flow