4.4: Forming Effective Paragraphs
As you expand your outline notes and research material into sentences, you will package those sentences into larger units called “paragraphs.” Paragraphs follow a standard, familiar structure. The structure enables readers to organize your ideas into chunks and to locate key information at a glance. Whereas a sentence communicates a complete thought, a paragraph communicates a coherent sequence of thoughts that are focused on a topic. Paragraphs themselves can then be assembled into larger units of meaning such as sections in a report (see §7.3 AND §7.4 below) or chapters in a book (see the Table of Contents for this book). Whether your message is a long one made of many paragraphs or just one paragraph fired off in an email, organized paragraphs structure your thoughts in a way that serves both you and your reader.
4.4.1: Paragraph Size and Structure
A well-organized paragraph follows the standard three-part message structure outlined in §4.1 above. In a paragraph, these three parts are:
- Topic sentence
- Body or development sentences
- Transitional or concluding sentence
Technically speaking, then, a paragraph must have at least 3 sentences. Be careful, however: a 3-sentence paragraph is only acceptable in short forms of communication (such as email). Communication that requires more substantial thinking (ex. a professional report, discussion post, or academic essay) requires more developed paragraphs. Depending on your manager or professor’s expectations, a standard paragraph is typically 5-9 sentences in length. This length allows you to develop your topic with points, proof, and explanation. When reviewing your work, ask yourself:
- Did I make a clear point?
- Did I offer proof? (ex. concrete examples, definitions, illustrations, statistics, or other evidence)
- Did I connect the points and the proof with explanation?
Like sentences, paragraphs should vary in length depending on audience needs and abilities, as well as the topics being covered. Remember the earlier point about adjusting a message to the audience profile? (see §2.2 above.) An audience with advanced literacy skills can handle longer paragraphs that might risk losing an audience that reads at a more basic level. Some topics need more development sentences than others and don’t easily divide in the middle, though a paragraph of ten sentences or more is really pushing it. Remember that a paragraph should never fill a whole page and carry on to the next one. This creates a “wall of text” that will immediately create resistance in your reader. No matter what the size, however, all paragraphs should follow the standard structure explained below so that readers at any level can easily find what they’re looking for.
1. Topic Sentence
The topic sentence states the main point (or thesis) of the paragraph for the reader. It sets up the sequence of sentences that follows it. This allows the reader to gain a quick impression of the whole topic before they examine the parts. As we saw in §4.1 above, this direct-approach organization caters to the rule that first impressions make a strong, memorable impact. Readers should be able to see how every sentence in any well-organized paragraph expands on something said or implied in the topic sentence. In this particular paragraph, for example, you will see how the second sentence elaborates on the description offered in the first sentence. The third sentence develops the in the topic sentence about accommodating the reader. The fourth sentence extends that idea to expand on the part in the topic sentence about how topic sentences summarize all paragraph parts as a whole. The sentences that follow (including this one) illustrate how that system works with examples and explanation. The final sentence wraps up the topic while bridging to the next topic sentence, which in this case is about how to come up with a topic sentence.
For many writers, it’s not possible to draft a truly strong topic sentence until the rest of the paragraph is developed. How can you summarize something that hasn’t been written yet? The best practice is to draft a first effort, then develop the rest of the paragraph, and then “discover” the ideal topic sentence as a concluding summary exercise. When you are in the earliest drafting stage of the writing process, you may not fully understand your own your point yet. You likely have a general sense of your topic and some points to cover, probably based on information you collected in your research earlier (see Ch. 3 on Stage 2 of the writing process). As you connect that evidence and build sentences around those information points, you begin to see where you’re going with the topic. Often, the thesis suddenly comes into focus near the end. Remember, writing is thinking! By writing, you discover your main point.
Try this exercise: In the final sentence, we often summarize the conclusion of our thinking. Highlight the final sentence, cut it (CTRL+X), and paste it (CTRL+V) at the top of the paragraph to replace the original drafted topic sentence. It most cases, it will do what a topic sentence should do: preview what follows with an at-a-glance summary.
2. Body or Development Sentences
The development sentences expand on the topic sentence by offering proof, evidence, and explanation in a sequence of complete thoughts. The sentences that comprise this sequence can present proof in the form of detailed explanations, supporting evidence, quotations, statistics, illustrative descriptions, specific examples, rhetorical counterpoints, and so on. The organizing principle could be any of those listed in Table 4.1.3 above such as chronology or comparison and contrast. As parts of a logical sequence of sentences, each sentence connects to those around it with pronouns that use effective repetition (referring to nearby points without repeating them word for word; see Table 4.4.2a below) and transitional expressions (see Table 4.4.2b) to drive the topic exploration forward. In the paragraph under “1. Topic Sentence” above, for instance, the pronoun “this” in the first development sentence (the second sentence in the paragraph) represents the topic sentence position referred to in the topic sentence preceding it. In the sentence above this one, the transitional phrase “for instance” signals an illustrative example offered as supporting evidence of the topic sentence thesis on the sentences’ path towards the transitional or concluding sentence.
3. Transitional or Concluding Sentence
The final sentence of a well-organized paragraph makes it all add up to something significant. You might consider this a final, overall explanation of the paragraph’s point. Be careful, though: in high school, many teachers instruct students to merely re-state the topic sentence. However, in college or university, this advice is not good enough. Who wants to re-read a point made 20 seconds earlier? Rather, the final sentence should leave the reader feeling that they arrived at a new understanding of why a topic matters or how it fits within the overall report or essay.
In some cases, the concluding sentence can also establish a thematic bridge to the next paragraph. If the next paragraph flows closely from the previous one, the concluding sentence can ease the transition by pointing the way forward. Note: this strategy may not be possible in every case. If there is a clean break between the ideas in one paragraph and the ideas in the next, don’t try to force a transition by pivoting randomly to a different topic at the last second.
Especially in cases of stand-alone paragraphs or final paragraphs in a document, concluding sentences that tie up those lose ends with a clever and memorable turn of phrase cater to the recency principle in psychology. Recall how “recency” means that final impressions have impact similar to first impressions (see §4.1 above), making the concluding/transitional sentence an important one to the overall success of a paragraph in ensuring that the main point broached in the topic sentence is fully understood. With every part of a paragraph fulfilling a purpose towards communicating a larger point, the double duty that the concluding/transitional sentence performs makes it the glue that binds together paragraphs and the documents they comprise.
4.4.2: Paragraph Coherence
Coherence is achieved by paragraphs sticking to the topic summarized in the opening sentence, as well as using pronouns and transitional expressions to link sentences together while developing that topic. Paragraphs that grow to the point where they exceed about a dozen lines on the page usually deserve to be broken up into a couple of topics as their internal transitions take them into territory far enough from the topic stated in the first sentence. Generally, a paragraph sticks to just one topic while the one following it covers a related but distinct topic.
Like the organizational principles we explored above, we have a repertoire of recognizable pronouns, transitional expressions, and particular words or phrases that connect ideas in our writing so readers can easily follow our trains of thought. Pronouns such as those in Table 4.4.2a below allow us to represent nouns, phrases, and even whole sentences that came before (called antecedents) without repeating them word for word—as long as the antecedents are clear (Kramer, 2021; see also §5.2 on proof-editing for pronoun-antecedent disagreement or ambiguity).
Table 4.4.2a: Pronoun Types and Examples
| Pronoun Type | Singular | Plural | Examples in Sentences |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Personal subject pronouns | 1st person: I 2nd person: you 3rd person: she, he, it |
we you they |
I wrote the script so that we would be prepared. Would you all prefer if you, Jenny, went first? She said that he could do it first instead. The team members are really quite good at what they do. |
| 2. Personal object pronouns | 1st person: me 2nd person: you 3rd person: her, him, it |
us you them |
The committee awarded the contract to me, but the credit goes to all of us. They could give one to you, as well. The committee sent her the news yesterday, sent it to him today, and wished them all good luck. |
| 3. Personal possessive determiners | 1st person: my 2nd person: your 3rd person: her, his, its |
our your their |
My advice is to deposit your payment in our account now. Indeed, all your payments are late. Her payment came through, but his didn’t. Their payment plan needs updating so that its bad timing doesn’t get them in trouble. |
| 4. Personal possessive pronouns | 1st person: mine 2nd person: yours 3rd person: hers, his, its |
ours yours theirs |
Let’s figure out what’s mine and what’s ours. You’ll get yours. The house is hers, the car is his, but the account is theirs. |
| 5. Reflexive and intensive pronouns | 1st person: myself 2nd person: yourself 3rd person: herself, himself, itself Reflexive: when the subject(s) and object(s) are the same person or people. Intensive: when it can be deleted without being ungrammatical. |
ourselves yourselves themselves |
I gave myself a break and you gave yourself an ache when we threw ourselves in the lake. He perjured himself (reflexive) and she won herself a new car (intensive). Love itself was lost (intensive). Do yourselves a favour. They stopped themselves from falling. |
| 6. Demonstrative pronouns | close by: this remote: that |
these those |
This deal might take some time. Pass me that report over there. These are the kinds of things you can expect when those people get involved. |
| 7. Relative pronouns | subject: who object: whom restrictive: that non-restrictive: which |
The accountant who does our taxes asked whom he should send the funds to. The account that he set up is a trust fund, which can be accessed in five years. | |
| 8. Interrogative pronouns | personal: who objective: what, which possessive: whose |
Who is going to call? What are they going to say? Which company do they represent? Whose number are they going to use? | |
| 9. Indefinite pronouns | one, everyone, no one, none, someone, somebody, anybody, everybody, nobody, other, another, everything, either | all, most, many, several, some, few, others, both, neither | One of us cannot be wrong. Everybody knows somebody. No one can tell anyone else what to do. Everyone has a right to know everything, but many don’t know that. All or most came today. Anybody can play guitar. Some went on, but none came back. Neither showed up, but either could have called, so both are at fault. Someone sent several calls to the others. Few can say that the other sent another. |
While pronouns often look back, transitional expressions drive a topic forward by establishing the relationships between the content of sentences. Table 4.4.2b below collects many such adverbs and conjunctive adverbs, prepositions and prepositional phrases, coordinating and subordinating conjunctions, infinitive phrases, interjections, and so on.
Table 4.4.2b: Transitional Expressions within and between Paragraphs
| Transition Type | Examples | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Sequence | First, …. Second, …. Third, … Initially, … From the start, |
…Next, … …, then … Later, |
…Ultimately, … Finally, … |
| 2. Addition, repetition | Additionally, … Again, … Also … Not only …, but also … Furthermore, … |
… and … … or … …, as well as … Besides, … Equally important … |
Further … Alternatively, … In addition, … Another … Moreover, … |
| 3. Time | When … / Whenever … Before … Earlier, … Recently, … Meanwhile, … |
While … Now … Currently, … During … Immediately … |
Simultaneously, Subsequently, After … Afterwards, … At last, … |
| 4. Place, position | Above … Below … Near … To the left/right of … |
Opposite … Close to … Adjacent to … Farther on … |
Beyond … In front of … Behind … Throughout … |
| 5. Logic, cause & effect | Therefore, … Thus, … For this reason, … Consequently, … |
Hence … If …, then … Clearly then, … It follows that … |
Accordingly, … As a result, … Because … Since … |
| 6. Similarity, comparison | In the same way, … Just as …, so too … |
Likewise, … Similarly, … |
… also … |
| 7. Example | For example, … For instance, … |
…, specifically … … in particular … |
To illustrate, … In this way, … |
| 8. Opposition, exception, contrast | However, … …, however, … … notwithstanding, … On the one/other hand, … On the contrary, … |
…, but … …, although … Nevertheless, … Nonetheless, … … instead … |
Still, … …, yet … In spite of … In contrast, … |
| 9. Emphasis | Indeed, … In fact, … |
Even … Of course, … |
|
| 10. Paraphrase, summary | In other words, … …—that is, … …—that is to say, … To paraphrase, … |
To summarize, … In conclusion, … In sum, … in a nutshell, … |
In a word, … In brief, … Ultimately, … in the end, … |
Key Takeaway
Collect and connect your sentences into coherent paragraphs that use a three-part structure to provide readers with a means to skim when pressed for time, find appropriate detail otherwise, and follow your train of thought through the effective use of pronouns and transitions.
Exercises
1. Find a professionally written document that contains paragraphs. Copy and paste one paragraph (or transcribe it if it’s from a print source) into a document and separate the sentences so that you put the topic sentence under the heading “Topic Sentence,” development sentences under a heading of their own, and concluding/transitional sentence under a heading of its own, too. Under each development sentence, explain what part of the topic sentence it expands on. If the paragraph lacks coherence, rewrite (1) the topic sentence so it’s a more effective summary of the whole paragraph, and (2) each development sentence so its role in extending the topic sentence is clearer.
2. Write a coherent, well-organized paragraph on a topic you recently learned about in another course in your program. Don’t use the textbook or other text that you learned it from as a source to copy from; instead, write from memory and your understanding. Ensure that:
i. The topic sentence explains the concept concisely
ii. Each of the development sentences expand on ideas in the topic sentence and flow from one to another using pronouns from Table 4.4.2a and transitions from Table 4.4.2b.
iii. The concluding sentence completes the reader’s understanding of the topic.
3. Write a paragraph on how to make coffee, tea, or another hot beverage. Begin the paragraph with a topic sentence, provide the details in the development sentences, and end with a concluding sentence. Include at least two transitional expressions from the table above.
References
Kramer, L. (2021, November 14). Pronouns. https://www.grammarly.com/blog/pronouns/
