Paragraph Basics

A paragraph is a unit of writing essentially comprising a group of sentences. Paragraphs separate ideas into logical, manageable chunks, not only for the reader but also for the writer. One paragraph should focus on only one main point, and should present coherent sentences to support that one point. Because all the sentences in one paragraph support the same point, a paragraph may stand on its own. If you have more than one main idea to convey, then you should use more than one paragraph to do so, even if the main ideas are within the same discussion about the same subject.

The size and scope of a paragraph can vary as needed, depending on subject, audience, and purpose, so it is possible to have very long paragraphs of ten or more sentences, or very short paragraphs of only one sentence. In other words, there is no correct number of sentences in a paragraph.

Regardless of this variation, all fully developed or complete paragraphs have two key parts: claim and support. The claim is essentially the statement of a point, and the support is essentially all the other sentences that further convey that point.

Furthermore, complete paragraphs generally have even more specific components in common, and giving each of these components a sentence of its own normally constructs a paragraph of about four or five sentences.

This can be considered complete paragraph construction, and once you understand its components, you can begin to make alterations as best fits your needs as a writer.

The common components of a complete paragraph are as follows:

The Complete Paragraph

• Topic Sentence: This states your claim, or main idea, or point about your subject.
  • Be deliberate and precise in your choice of terms, even if they will need explanation below.
  • Don’t focus on more than one main idea per paragraph.
  • This is most commonly the first sentence in a paragraph, but variations of order are possible as strategies for effectiveness.
• Explanation: This is a common type of supporting sentence that discusses the topic sentence by clarifying what it means or expanding on its ideas in more detail.
  • You can try helping your audience see your Topic Sentence in a new way here, sometimes by saying the point in a different way, or by elaborating on it.
  • Defining or categorizing your terms and ideas is often an effective type of explanation.
  • Stay focused on the claim in the Topic Sentence, even when introducing new details.
  • Don’t assume that your Topic Sentence is self-explanatory or perfectly expressed. Instead, work to clarify it further here.
• Example or Analogy: These are common types of supporting sentences that give readers concepts and images to relate to and connect with to better understand your claim.
  • An example gives the audience something clear and specific to relate to in order to better understand.
    • For examples, abstractions are bad and specifics are good. See the section Specificity for more information.
    • Examples can be real instances or hypothetical illustrations, as long as they clarify.
  • An analogy gives the audience something different from your subject to compare it to in order to better understand.
    • Analogies are most useful when the paragraph’s ideas are complex or unfamiliar to the audience, for they can clarify through comparison to simple or familiar ideas.
    • Don’t use weak analogies: analogies in which vital concepts fail to match up fairly or honestly.
  • Both examples and analogies often require their own Explanations (above).
• Conclusion: This is essentially a final supporting sentence. It clarifies the important understanding intended by the paragraph.
  • Emphasis is one type of conclusion. It explains the significance of the entire paragraph or the insight to be gained from it.
    • Don’t be redundant when using Emphasis. Instead, find a new, brief way to encapsulate vital ideas.
  • Rectification is another type of conclusion. It clarifies any likely misinterpretations and thereby identifies the most important interpretation.
    • When deciding what to address in Rectification, keep in mind misinterpretations that would be made by relying on common assumptions or thought clichés.
  • Don’t try to transition by using the last sentence of a paragraph to introduce the subject of the next paragraph. Instead, see the strategies in the section Transitions.

Examples of the Complete Paragraph

What follows are examples of complete paragraphs that use the components described above, and below each example is an analysis of its components.

• Topic Sentence: “Vigorous writing is concise.”
• Explanation: “A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, …”
• Analogy: “… for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.”
• Conclusion (Rectification): “This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that he make every word tell.”

• Topic Sentence: “Were the walls of our meat industry to become transparent, literally or even figuratively, we would not long continue to do it this way.”
• Explanation: “The industrialization–and dehumanization–of American animal farming is a relatively new, evitable and local phenomenon: no other country raises and slaughters its food animals quite as intensively or as brutally as we do.”
• Example: “Tail-docking and sow crates and beak-clipping would disappear overnight, and the days of slaughtering 400 head of cattle an hour would come to an end. For who could stand the sight?”
• Conclusion (Rectification and Emphasis): “Yes, meat would get more expensive. We’d probably eat less of it, too, but maybe when we did eat animals, we’d eat them with the consciousness, ceremony and respect they deserve.”

• Topic Sentence: “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.”
• Explanation: “It seeks to so dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent-resister may sound rather shocking.”
  • Defining/Categorizing as Explanation: “But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth.”
• Analogy: “Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind…”
  • Explanation of Analogy: “… so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, …”
• Conclusion (Emphasis): “… we must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.”