How to write a paragraph
An overview for writing teachers

Until they know how to write a paragraph, students don't feel they are doing "real writing," even though the hardest part of writing is the preparation.

Below is an overview of concepts and ideas that you need to teach paragraph writing.

Essential paragraphs

Students need to know how to write three different kinds of paragraphs.

Body or expository paragraphs

The body paragraph is also called the expository paragraph. Body paragraphs contain the evidence to support the thesis. When we talk about teaching how to write a paragraph, we usually mean teaching body paragraph writing.

In writing that uses the thesis + support pattern, body paragraphs typically begin with a topic sentence that tells what the paragraph is about. If the topic sentence isn't the opening sentence of a body paragraph, it is most likely to be the last sentence.

In academic writing, evidence is presented in a three-step process that I call the evidence waltz. Students are familiar with the process from everyday conversation.

Within the paragraph transitional words and phrases function like road signs to show readers how one idea is like or unlike the previous one. Linking devices are the glue that makes sentences into paragraphs.

Transitional expressions and linking devices may be combined to create transition sentences.

Introductory paragraphs

The introductory paragraph prepares the reader to understand the thesis, which is usually the last sentence of the introduction.

Conclusion paragraphs

The conclusion or ending paragraph lets the reader know the writer has finished.

Like all other components of writing skills, how to write a paragraph needs to be taught repeatedly in short sessions over many months.