Paragraph Writing – Introduction, Structure, Types and Format

When you combine a group of sentences to give it the shape of a meaningful expression of a topic or subject matter, it is termed a paragraph. A paragraph divides a large piece of writing like an essay, story, novel or article into several parts. A well-knit paragraph facilitates the continuation of a subject matter containing a large number of words. A paragraph breaks a long topic or subject matter. An ideal paragraph should comprise a maximum of five lines.  

What Is Paragraph Writing?

A well-constructed paragraph should end logically on the topic or subject matter it is dealing with. The sentences used in a paragraph should be composite, comprehensive and coherent to link it with the previously written part and act as a continuation to the next part. Paragraphs are broken parts of a long theme. You need to put your ideas and argumentation in such a systematic way that they can easily carry forward the meaning in the subsequent paragraphs or broken parts of your writing.

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How to Write a Paragraph?

Writing a meaningful paragraph is an art in which your language plays a supreme role for any paragraph writer. The thematic representation forms the core of paragraph writing. This means you are dealing with the theme, subject matter and its key issues in a coherent manner to convey what you mean to convey. There are certain points that you must keep in your mind while writing a paragraph. We are explaining below the five such points on how to write a paragraph:

Topicality or Thematic Explanation: You can write a long piece on any subject you choose. But it must move around the topic you have chosen. Now you break the theme or topic as you progress on combining sentences as per the theme, topic or subject matter. If you deviate from the principal topic, your paragraphs cannot express meaning effectively. Your introductory paragraph should give a hint about which topic you are writing.

Introductory Paragraph: This is the core of a successful paragraph. Your first paragraph or introduction of a long written piece should be crisp. It should best be a curtain raiser. You are raising the curtain for the next thus evoking the interest of the readers.

Elaboration: Your explanation of the topic from one paragraph to another in continuation of the meaning is very important. If you cannot elaborate on your subject or theme in the paragraphs, you cannot construct a well-researched piece on a particular theme or subject. 

Avoidance of Repetition: This is very important in paragraph writing. You should not repeat in a paragraph what you have already mentioned in the previous paragraph. People will lose interest in the article or write-up if you repeat the same thing. This means you must add newness or something new while explaining your subject matter.

Concluding Paragraph: This matters a lot! Just as your introductory paragraph should be crispy and catchy raising the curtain of subsequent paragraphs, your concluding paragraph or the last paragraph should be framed in such a way that it sums up the whole writing. It should be a few sentences that bring a logical end to your write-up.

What is The Structure of a Paragraph?

The structural part of paragraph writing is very important as it makes the writing meaningful and coherent. Such a structure creates a sequence. Structurally, your paragraph should have a beginning, a middle and an end or conclusion. The structure of a paragraph should be the following:

Topic Sentence: Put your ideas clearly in this part of the paragraph structure. This is the beginning. You explain in brief the theme, key subject matter or topic.

Supporting Sentences: This is the middle part of the paragraph. After the introduction, you are explaining or elaborate on the subject or topic.

Concluding Sentences: You end your write-up with a logical conclusion. Your concluding paragraph sums up the entire subject in a few sentences.

Topic Sentence

This is the beginning part of the paragraph writing. You are basically giving a brief introduction of whatever topic you have chosen to explain in the form of an essay or write-up. You are simply giving a hint at what the topic is.  

Supporting Sentence

You are writing this paragraph to support your topic or get a little more details about it. You are supporting your theme with more details by giving different references or quoting facts and figures. Sometimes, you are dwelling on the historical perspective also if the write-up demands it. 

Supporting sentences may include the following:

· Opinion or description of viewpoint

· Statistics, facts and figures to support your write up

· Your Personal Experiences or narrative of experiences gathered by others

· Research Studies, if any

· Your Own Analysis

Conclusion Sentence (Conclusive Sentences)

This is the final paragraph in which you conclude your write-up or article. This is the logical end you should follow.

Types of Paragraph Writing

The types of paragraphs are crucial to meaningful writing. This is due to the reason that when you are engaged in writing a piece consisting of several paragraphs, you are basically dealing with a topic, type and theme. In all these things, you are narrating or describing something or some topic. They should follow a definite type. We are listing below five different types of paragraph writing:

Descriptive Type: In this type of paragraph writing, you describe something. For example, if you are writing a travel story or a visit to a temple, you are describing the architecture of the temple. Such descriptions evoke interest among the readers.

Narrative Type: A beautifully narrated paragraph can attract the eye of the readers. If you are writing about your journey by train to a particular city, you can narrate how your journey was, whom you met, and talked and what you have seen outside from your train’s window.

Storytelling Type: This can be a little difficult as your capacity to tell a story with few sentences of the paragraph requires plot summarization. It should be a continuous process. In other words, you are extending the storyline from one paragraph to the other.

Expository Type: In this type of paragraph, you show your knowledge of research-based issues or topics. You expose the cause and effect of a scientific issue. You expose knowledge-based study on a historical event.   

Persuasive Type: If you are pursuing a specific line of thought, you pursue people with proper argumentations about its importance. Pursuance of readers to agree with you depends totally on how you construct your persuasive type paragraph.  

What Makes a Paragraph Very Good?

A paragraph should be well-structured conveying the sense of the topic in a crystal clear manner. The language you use should be simple yet knitted well. Always avoid ambiguity in writing paragraphs. This is due to the reason that one paragraph is linked to the other paragraph meaning-wise. If there is ambiguity in one paragraph then you cannot justify the meaning in the next paragraph.

How to Transition Within a Paragraph?

An ideal transitory phase of the paragraph makes it more pertinent to the topic you are dealing with. It can be used or transited at the end of the first paragraph and the beginning of the second paragraph. Transition within a paragraph can be used in most types of writing but is most commonly used in the case of academic writing. 

The transition logically connects the paragraphs. Here are some ideas about transition within a paragraph:

1. To exemplify ………
2. To support the earlier argument……..
3. This looks apparently real but a close examination will prove it is not so………… 

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Top 5 Tips to Write a Good Paragraph

To write a paragraph, you must move systematically. We’re listing below four major points on how to write a paragraph:

1. Topic Sentence: This means you are giving an introduction of the topic, subject or issue on which you are writing the paragraph. The sentences you are using in it should give a brief idea of what you are writing.

2. Informative Sentence: The sentences used in this paragraph writing should give necessary information about the subject. Your language in this type of paragraph should be well-knit.

3. Supporting Sentence: You have to make this paragraph argumentative to support your topic. If it is academic writing and you are writing about a theory, you have to support the theory with proper postulates and arguments.

4. Explanatory Sentence: If you are explaining something, you have to give a few sentences to justify what you have written. Basically, you are using sentences to explain the meaning.

5. End Sentence: This is the conclusion. A successful end-sentence paragraph should be a churn of all that you have already written. 

How Many Sentences In a Paragraph?

There is no hard and fast rule about it. But you must note that a paragraph should not be long comprising a large number of sentences. A coherently written paragraph should not comprise more than five or six sentences.

How Many Lines is a Paragraph?

A paragraph should not contain more than four or at the most five lines. If you make your paragraph long or lengthy, you will lose control over the proper application of sentences. It may get jumbled up if you use more than five lines. Once you jumble up, you cannot express the meaning properly and sequentially.

When to End a Paragraph?

This is very important. Often a student gets confused as to where to end. A meaningful end of a paragraph necessarily means you have completed giving final judgment or justification of your subject matter, argumentation or explanation on a theme. You must note that an abrupt end will spoil your write-up. You must sequentially come to the ending part. This means you have already explained your point in earlier paragraphs. What remains is the last paragraph that ends the whole write-up.

What is Paragraph Symbol?

Usually, a Pilcrow mark is used in paragraphs to denote whether a new paragraph is beginning or has begun. This Pilcrow mark is ¶. This symbol is used to mark a paragraph for generations together.

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In Conclusion

Paragraphs form the very essence of the complete write-up or article. It should be fragmented and each fragment we call a paragraph should act as the link to the earlier paragraph. Your article, analyses, graphical description of a tourist place, explanation of a theory or short story cannot prove to be interesting and engrossing unless the paragraphs are well-knit. This is one of the reasons why you need to use your art of argumentation in writing paragraphs. In all cases, the paragraphs should be logical.