Chapter 5 Writing the Paragraph-Final

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.

The following paragraph is both a definition and an example of the developmental paragraph.

The developmental paragraph contains three parts: the subject, the topic sentence, and the support. The subject is what you will write about. It is likely to be broad and must be focused or qualified for specific treatment. The topic sentence contains both the subject and the treatment--what you will do with the subject. It carries the central idea to which everything else in the paragraph is a topic sentence. Even when not stated, the topic sentence as an underlying idea unifies the paragraph. The support is the evidence or reasoning by which a topic sentence is developed. It comes in several basic patterns and serves any of the four forms of expression: narration, description, exposition, and argumentation. These forms, which are usually combined in writing, will be presented with both student and professional examples in the following chapters. The developmental paragraph, therefore, is a group of sentences, each with the function of supporting a controlling idea called to topic sentence.

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.

Source:Brandon, Lee. Brandon, Kelly. Paragraphs and Essays with Integrated Readings,eleventh  Edition. Boston, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2011