Wednesday, February 29, 2012

ESL Writing The Paragraph

What is a paragraph A paragraph is a group of related sentences dealing with a single topic. You have to learn to write good paragraphs to keep your writing organized during your first drafting and final revision stages. Writing well organized paragraphs will also help your readers to follow your argument. You can have very good ideas, but if you don't present those ideas in an organized fashion, you will confuse and lose your readers and therefore, not reach your goal of getting your ideas across to them.

The Basic Rule: Keep One Idea to One Paragraph

The basic rule of thumb in writing paragraphs is to have only one idea in each paragraph. If a new idea begins to grow out of your first idea, it belongs in a new paragraph.

It is one CENTRAL idea to each paragraph. It is acceptable to have one idea and several bits of supporting evidence within a single paragraph. You can also have several different points in a single paragraph but they must all be clearly related to the central topic of the paragraph. If the supporting points are more than a few sentences, then you should expand them and place them in their own paragraphs.

Paragraphs have three principal parts. These three parts are:

    the topic sentence,
    body sentences, and
    the concluding sentence.

The Topic Sentence

A topic sentence is a sentence that indicates in a general way what idea the paragraph is going to deal with. The topic sentence usually is the first sentence in the paragraph. This is not always the case, and some experienced writers find reasons of style or content to have the topic sentence somewhere else in the paragraph ( the first sentence, the last sentence, or somewhere in the middle). However, an easy way to make sure your reader understands the topic of the paragraph is to put your topic sentence near the beginning of the paragraph.

More important than its place is that the topic sentence must be the most general sentence in a paragraph. This means that there should not be too many details in the sentence, but that the sentence introduces an overall idea that you want to discuss later in the paragraph.

For example, suppose that you want to write a paragraph about the natural landmarks of your country. The first part of your paragraph might look like this:

My country, Bolivia, is famous for several amazing geographical features. First, it is noted for its breathtaking Andes mountains. Equally impressive are the country's rich agricultural valleys. Finally, Bolivia boasts of a vast Amazon area with its jungles and rivers.

Note how the first sentence, My country, Bolivia, is famous for several amazing geographical features is the most general statement. This sentence is different from the three sentences that follow it, since these sentences mention specific details about the country's geography, and are not general statements.

The Body Sentences

The body sentences provide explanations and support for the topic sentence (main idea) of your paragraph. When appropriate, supporting sentences that include facts, statistics and logical reasoning are much more convincing than simple statements of opinion.

In our sample paragraph, there are three body sentences that enlarge on the general idea of the topic sentence, which tells us that Bolivia has several amazing geographical features. The first body sentence mentions the Andes mountains. The second body sentence mentions the valleys, and the third brings up the Amazon.

The Concluding SentenceThe concluding sentence restates the main idea found in your topic sentence and reinforces the point or opinion.

In our case, the concluding sentence might be something like: "Anyone who visits Bolivia is enchanted by its varied geography."

The overall paragraph would be:

My country, Bolivia, is famous for several amazing geographical features. First, it is noted for breathtaking Andes mountains. Equally impressive are the country's rich agricultural valleys. Finally, Bolivia boasts of a vast Amazon area with its jungles and rivers. Anyone who visits Bolivia is enchanted by its varied geography.

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