The Paragraph A paragraph is a group of sentences stating one idea or one event. 4 types of writing : - Narrative : telling a story. - Descriptive : describing a person, place, thing or event. - Expository : explaining something or giving directions. How to … - Persuasive : convincing the reader to support your opinion.

What are the 3 parts of an effective paragraph ? Topic sentence : it states the topic (title) of the paragraph and gives the reader some idea of what the writer intends to say. It must be clear, precise and informative.  Developing sentences : give more information about the topic.  Closing sentence : summarizes the paragraph or makes a striking comment about the topic.

The Topic sentence  Most paragraphs contain a sentence somewhere that states (or strongly suggests) the focus or topic of the paragraph. This sentence is sometimes called the topic sentence and is often found at or near the beginning of the paragraph, although it can appear in the middle or at the end.

 A well-written topic sentence tells your reader what your subject or topic is and what you plan to say about it.  In a tightly organized paragraph, every sentence is closely related to the topic sentence, bringing a sense of unity and clarity to your writing.

As you work your way through your overall topic or idea, you move from one paragraph to the next. Eventually you will tie all the paragraphs together into an essay, report, analysis, critique, or other types of composition calling for highly organized writing.

Unity and Coherence  a paragraph is unified if all the sentences in it relate to the same idea, they clearly relate to the topic sentence. ( See example on page 72 of Student Writer’s Guide)  a paragraph is coherent if the sentences are arranged in a clear and logical order, using linking words to show how they are related. (See list of transition words on page 74 of Student Writer’s Guide)

Supporting Detail When you write a paragraph, you’ll need to back up your topic (thesis) by giving detail. There are many ways of doing this, for example, use:  Facts  Statistics  Examples  Quotations  Features  Arguments  Definitions  Comparisons

Avoid  Beginning a paragraph by saying: “I’m going to talk to you about…” or “This paragraph will explain…” These are bad beginnings.  For example, instead of “This paragraph is about the space program and all the innovations that have helped society.” Write: “Innovations from the space program have helped advance society.”

 Don’t use “I” or first person in paragraphs other than personal narratives; use third person point of view (he, she, it, etc.)  Wordiness: take out all unnecessary words.  Unclear pronoun references: never start a sentence with the words “this” or “that” etc. Your reader may not know what you mean.  Insufficient transitions: you need to link ideas to one another.