Chapter 5 Writing the Paragraph

Chapter 5 Writing the Paragraph


The Paragraph Defined

Defining the word paragraph is no easy task because there are four different kinds of paragraphs, each one having a different purpose:

• Introductory: Usually the first paragraph in an essay, it fives the necessary background and indicated the main idea, called the thesis.
• Developmental: A unit of several sentences, it expands on an idea.
• Transitional: A very brief paragraph, it merely directs the reader from one point in the essay to another.
• Concluding: Usually the last paragraph in an essay, it makes the final comment on the topic.

Basic Paragraph Patterns

The most important point about a developmental paragraph is that it should state an idea and support it. The support, or development, can take several forms, all of which you already use. It can:

• give an account (tell a story).
• describe people, things, or events.;
• explain by analyzing, giving examples, comparing, defining, showing how to do something, or showing causes.
• argue that something should be done or resisted, that something is true or untrue, or that something is good or bad.

You will not find it difficult to write solid paragraphs once you understand that good writing requires that main ideas have enough support so that your reader can understand how you have arrived at your main conclusions.

Usually the developmental paragraph will be indented only one time. However, you will note in your reading that some writers, especially journalists, break a paragraph into parts and indent more than once in developing a single idea. That arrangement, called a paragraph unit, is fairly common in magazine and newspaper articles (frequently with each sentence indented) but less so in college writing.

The development paragraph is a group of sentences, each with the function of stating or supporting a controlling idea called the topic sentence.


The developmental paragraph contains three parts: the subject, the topic sentence, and the support.


The two main partterns of the developmental paragraph are (A) topic sentence and support, and (B) topic sentence, support, and cocluding sentence.

Pattern A Pattern B

Topic sentence ....................................Topic sentence

Support ................................................Support

Support ................................................Support

Support ................................................Support

..................................................Concluding sentence.


The topic sentence includes what you are writing about-the subject-and what you intend to do with that subject-the treatment.

The outline is a pattern for showing the relationship of ideas. It can be used to reveal the structure and content of something you read or to plan the structure and content of something you intend to write. The following topic outline shows how the parts are arranged on the page as well as how the ideas in it relate to one another.

Main Idea (will usually be the topic sentence for the paragraph or the thesis for the essay)

I. Major support
A. Minor support

1. Details (specific information of various kinds)
2. Details

B. Minor support

1. Details
2. Details

II. Major support

A. Minor support

B. Minor support

1. Details
2. Details
3. Details

Source:Brandon, Lee. Brandon, Kelly. Paragraphs and Essays with Integrated Readings, Tenth Edition. Boston, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008