How to Write a Good Paragraph or Article
- The paragraph is a set of sentences or propositions that, connected to each other, develop a global idea. This is characterized mainly by being a thematic unit, by having coherence, and by presenting comprehensive clarity
- To write a good paragraph, you must first define a topic, or “something you plan to talk about.” You should think about the topic sentence and express it taking into account that it has the necessary elements to present a complete thought.
Elements of Paragraph:
- 1) Sentence: Word, or set of words, whose meaning is total. It is an independent element.
- It is not advisable to write sentences that are too long, twenty or thirty words are recommended. It is also a good method to separate them with a period. Remember that the sentence corresponds to the structure: Subject + Verb + Complement.
- 2) Central theme supporting sentences) (: The paragraph consists of a central idea, which is generally synthesized in a sentence called Central theme sentence (which guides the development of the paragraph and is the axis of it), and secondary or supporting sentences (between 4 and 5), which are the arguments that explain and support the main idea.
- The fair measure of a paragraph is a maximum of five or six sentences.
Importance
- To write a good paragraph, you must first define a topic, or “something you plan to talk about.” You should think about the topic sentence and express it taking into account that it has the necessary elements to present a complete thought.
- The essential thing in the construction of a good paragraph is the brevity, clarity, precision and efficiency with which the ideas are expressed. In addition, it is recommended to change the paragraph when completing a logical process and / or when the visual fatigue of the reader requires it.
- Paragraph writing practice is essential for good writing. Paragraphs help break up large texts and make content easier for readers to understand. They guide the reader through your argument by focusing on a main idea or purpose. However, knowing how to write a good, well-structured paragraph can be a bit tricky. Read the guidelines below to find out how to make your paragraph writing skills great!
- Decide what the main topic of the paragraph will be. Before you start writing your paragraph, you should have a clear idea of what will be discussed in it. This is because a paragraph is basically a group of sentences that are related to a central topic. Without a clear idea of what the main topic is, your paragraph will lack focus and cohesion. To determine the exact topic of your paragraph, you must ask certain questions:
- What is the question they asked me? If you are going to write a paragraph in response to a particular question like “You decided to donate money to a charity. What organization did you choose and why? Then ‘Describe your favorite day of the week on which day you want to celebrate. . You will need to think carefully about that question and make sure to answer it directly, rather than getting off topic.
- What are the main ideas or problems that I need to address? Think about the topic that you are being asked or decided to write about and consider what are the most relevant ideas or problems related to it. Paragraphs are usually relatively short; therefore, it is important that you try to address all the main ideas without getting off topic.
- If your paragraphs are part of a longer essay, writing an essay outline can help you define the main ideas or purposes of each paragraph.
- Write the information and ideas related to that topic. When you have a clearer idea of what you want to address in your paragraph, you can start organizing your thoughts by writing your ideas in a notepad or Word document. There is no need to write full sentences yet, just a few key words and phrases. When you have everything written, you will have a clearer idea of which are the essential points that you should include in your paragraph and which are unnecessary.
- At this point, you may realize that there is a gap in your knowledge and that some facts and figures will need to be consulted to support your argument.
- Determine how you want to structure your paragraph. Now that you have clearly established all of your thoughts, ideas, facts, and figures, you can start thinking about how to structure your paragraph. Consider each of the points you want to address and try to organize them in a logical order, this will make your paragraph more coherent and easy to read.
- This new order can be chronological, put the most important information first, or simply make the paragraph easier to read and more interesting; it all depends on the topic and style of the paragraph you want to write.
- After deciding the order of all the elements, you can rewrite your points following this new structure. This will help make the writing process much faster and easier.
- Write a topic sentence:The first sentence of your paragraph should be the topic sentence. A topic sentence is an introductory line that indicates what the main idea or thesis of the paragraph will be. This should contain the most important and relevant point that you want to capture in relation to your topic; therefore, you should summarize the entire paragraph.
- Each of the other sentences you write should support the topic sentence and provide more detail, as well as talk about the problems or ideas it raises. If any of the sentences you write cannot be directly related to the topic sentence, you should not include it in this paragraph.
- More experienced writers can include their topic sentence anywhere in the paragraph and not necessarily on the first line. However, beginning writers, or those with less experience writing paragraphs, should put the topic sentence first, as it will help guide them through the other parts of the paragraph.
- Your topic sentence shouldn’t be too long or too short. If it’s too long, you won’t be able to talk about the ideas properly in the paragraph. If it’s too short, you won’t have much to talk about.
- Supporting details:After writing your topic sentence and feeling satisfied with it, you can begin to place the other parts of your paragraph. This is when the well-structured and detailed notes you wrote earlier will come in handy. Make sure your paragraph is coherent, meaning that it is easy to read and understand, that each sentence connects to the next, and that everything flows properly as a unit. To achieve this, try to write simple and clear sentences that express exactly what you want to say.
- Link each sentence with transitional words that bridge the gap between one sentence and the next. Transition words can help you compare and contrast, show sequences, show cause and effect, highlight important ideas, and move smoothly from one idea to the next. These transitional words include ‘also’, is ‘more’ and ‘likewise should be used in sentences’ You can also use chronological transitions, such as “first,” “second,” and “third.”
- Supporting sentences are the essential part of your paragraph, so you should place them along with as much evidence as possible to support your topic sentence. You can use whatever you want, as long as it’s relevant.
- Who am I going to write for? Think about who the reader of this paragraph or article will be. What is your prior knowledge? Are you familiar with the topic at hand or will it require some explanatory sentences?
- Three to five sentences are generally sufficient to cover your main idea and support your topic sentence adequately, but this will vary significantly depending on the subject and the length of the article you are writing. There is no fixed length for a paragraph, so it should be long enough to cover the main idea.
- The Concluded sentence: The closing sentence of your paragraph should link it all together. A good closing sentence will reinforce the idea explained in your topic sentence, but will now have all the evidence or arguments mentioned in the supporting sentence. After reading the closing sentence, the reader should have no doubt about the truth or appropriateness of the paragraph as a unit.
- You don’t just state the subject sentence in other words. The last sentence should accept what was said before and remind the reader of the relevance of what is stated.
- For example, ‘Why is Islam A bad a great place to live in Pakistan?’ In a paragraph discussing his subject, concludes the sentence “From all the evidence offered, such as the great services offered in Century Islam, we can conclude that the first level education system and clean and safe cities, this city is definitely a great place to stay”.
- Learn to determine when to proceed with a new paragraph. Sometimes it’s hard to say where one paragraph will end and another will begin. Fortunately, there are some guidelines you can follow that may highlight the need to continue in a new paragraph. The most basic guideline to follow is that every time you start discussing a new idea, you should do so in a new paragraph. Paragraphs cannot contain more than one main idea. If a particular idea has several points or aspects, each aspect of the idea should have its own paragraph.
- A new paragraph is also used each time you compare two points or indicate each argument position. For example, your topic is “Should government officials get lower salaries?” One paragraph should discuss arguments in favor of lower wages for civil servants, while the other will present arguments against this idea.
- Paragraphs make the writing easier to understand and give readers a “pause” between new ideas to understand what they are reading. If you think the paragraph you are writing is too complicated or contains a series of complicated points, you may want to consider dividing it into separate paragraphs.
- When writing an article, the introduction and conclusion should always have their own paragraphs. Your introductory paragraph should explain the purpose of the article and what you want to accomplish, while providing a brief explanation of the ideas and topics you will be discussing. The closing paragraph provides a summary of the information and arguments of the article, and clearly states what the article states or proves. You can also come up with new ideas that open the minds of the reader to reflect on the issues raised in the article.
- If you are writing fiction material, you should start a new paragraph with dialogue to show new speakers.
- Check the spelling and grammar of your paragraphs. When you’re done writing, it’s important that you re -read your paragraph two or three times to check for grammatical errors. Grammar can affect the quality of the paragraph you feel, even if the ideas and arguments contained in it are of high quality. It’s easy to ignore small mistakes while typing, so don’t miss this step even if you’re in a hurry.
- Make sure each sentence has a subject and all the correct nouns are written in capital letters. Also, make sure all subjects and verbs are appropriate and use the same tense throughout the paragraph.
- You can also use a thesaurus to look up synonyms for words, if you feel like you’re using the same term too much. Just remember to look up any word you choose from the thesaurus in the dictionary to make sure you know its exact meaning. Thesauri group words very generally and not all of them mean the same thing. For example, the thesaurus indicates that “happy”, “euphoric” and “contented” are synonymous with “happy”, but each of these words has its own connotation or shade of particular meaning that can change the tone and even the meaning of your prayer if you’re not careful.
- Review your paragraph to make sure you use punctuation appropriately, such as commas, colons, semicolons, and ellipsis, in the correct context.
- For beginning writers, it’s best to use short, punctual sentences that clearly express your point of view. Long, unsound sentences can quickly become inconsistent or contain grammatical errors, so try to avoid them until you have more writing experience.
- After rereading the paragraph and fixing any errors in grammar or style, you should take another look to determine if it is complete. Try to review the paragraph objectively and decide if it supports and develops your topic sentence as necessary or if it needs some more detail or additional evidence to support your claims.
- If you consider that the content of the rest of your paragraph adequately supports and develops the most important statement in your topic sentence, it is likely that your paragraph is complete. However, if an important aspect of the topic is not yet explored or explained, or if the paragraph is less than three sentences long, you may need to do some more work on it?
- On the other hand, you might decide that your paragraph is too long and contains superfluous content or is off-topic. If this is the case, you should edit the paragraph so that it only contains the most relevant information.
- If you consider that all the content is necessary to express your point of view, but the paragraph is still very long, consider the possibility of dividing it into several more specific and smaller ones.