1. A Well Organized Paragraph
Or all the things I never learned about how to arrange a paragraph around quotes and other evidence…

2. A good essay contains several paragraphs introducing various kinds of evidence that explain how that evidence is working to prove your overall argument to be reasonable.
for example…

3. So how do you construct a well-written, organized, effective, persuasive, interesting, supportive, relevant paragraph?

4. Try this: imagine yourself a lawyer in a courtroom…
Writing a good paragraph is just like a lawyer presenting evidence in court.

5. A good paragraph presents a quote and then explains how it supports your overall thesis…
…just like the way a lawyer presents a piece of evidence to a judge and jury and then explains how that evidence proves that a defendant is innocent or guilty.

6. The paragraph is what makes your evidence work in an essay
The paragraph is what makes your evidence work in an essay. Without an effectively ordered paragraph, your evidence languishes and eventually fades away, unnoticed by your reader…

7. If you were a lawyer, you wouldn’t, for example, walk up to a judge and jury, hold up the following in a zip-lock bag,
say “Gun,” and then stand there silently.

8. Ballistics fingerprints permit records
You would introduce the gun and then explain what about it was incriminating in this case, such as…
Ballistics fingerprints permit records
(This is Elvis’s)
Is the permit for the gun issued to the defendant?
Do the bullets at the crime scene match this gun?
Are the fingerprints on the gun a match for the defendant?

9. So too works the paragraph. For example…
Here’s a sample paragraph that might make use of this quote to make that argument…
Let’s take an example from literature, such as the following quote from Toni Morrison’s Beloved: “A life. Could be” (60). And let’s imagine we’re writing an essay in which we are trying to argue that the novel is a work of optimism.

10. Early in Beloved, Morrison does in fact give a hint that Sethe might not live a life entirely defined by downward spiraling tragedy. When Paul D takes Sethe and the girls to the carnival, there is a moment as they way along the road near sunset and Sethe sees the shadows of their hands intertwining, even though the hands in actuality are yet to do this. “A life,” Sethe thinks to herself, “Could be” (60). When she says, “A life,” Sethe is considering the possibility that Paul D might stay with her and, in a somewhat odd configuration, they could form mother and father for Denver and this new girl, Beloved, who has arrived in her home. And despite the fact that Sethe remains haunted by the murder of her child, the estrangement from her sons, and a host of other losses, Morrison offers some light at this point; when Sethe briefly imagines a future, we too allow ourselves to imagine a future for her. While it’s important to consider how Morrison offers some optimism early in Beloved, it’s only through a careful examination of the beginning and conclusion of the text that her optimism is confirmed.

11. Order in the Court! Introduce Locate Present Explain Interpret
Transition
Evidence-based paragraphs

12. (1) Early in Beloved, Morrison does in fact give a hint that Sethe might not live a life entirely defined by downward spiraling tragedy. (2) When Paul D takes Sethe and the girls to the carnival, there is a moment as they way along the road near sunset and Sethe sees the shadows of their hands intertwining, even though the hands in actuality are yet to do this. (3) “A life,” Sethe thinks to herself, “Could be” (60). (4) When she says, “A life,” Sethe is considering the possibility that Paul D might stay with her and, in a somewhat odd configuration, they could form mother and father for Denver and this new girl, Beloved, who has arrived in her home. (5) And despite the fact that Sethe remains haunted by the murder of her child, the estrangement from her sons, and a host of other losses, Morrison offers some light at this point; when Sethe briefly imagines a future, we too allow ourselves to imagine a future for her. (6) While it’s important to consider how Morrison offers some optimism early in Beloved, it’s only through a careful examination of the beginning and conclusion of the text that her optimism is confirmed.

13. This simple six-step approach helps manage evidence in a paragraph.
INTRODUCE the overall topic
LOCATE the specific location or occurrence of the evidence.
PRESENT the evidence
EXPLAIN the evidence, specifically the language of it and how it works
.INTERPRET the evidence in terms of how it relates to and supports your overall argument (thesis)
TRANSITION to the next piece of evidence (which can also be done in the next paragraph)

14. Now you try…