The effectiveness of an essay begins with, and depends on, your ability to craft a well-written paragraph. Knowing the key components of a paragraph and understanding how these components can either weaken or strengthen your composition are essential for success in college writing.
The Paragraph
A paragraph is a sequence of sentences grouped together that share one main idea. A paragraph can stand alone as a composition or may be one part of a larger piece of writing, such as an essay, article, or email. Every paragraph has the same basic three-part structure:
- Topic Sentence
- Supporting Sentences
- Concluding Sentence
The Topic Sentence
A topic sentence is the sentence that clearly identifies the main idea in each paragraph. In other words, it controls the focus of the paragraph and contains an idea to be developed with further details. It is usually, but not always, the first or second sentence within a paragraph. Because it contains the controlling idea of the paragraph, it is important to have a strong, well-written topic sentence.
Weak topic sentences
- 68.5% of Canadians turned out to vote in the federal election.
- Too narrow. A fact cannot be a topic sentence because it is too specific and does not contain an idea that can be developed. Facts are very useful when defending or developing an argument, but cannot be the controlling idea of the paragraph.
- Immigration is good.
- Too broad. This sentence is too general and needs to be made more specific. Good for whom? Good in what way?
- Why parents should never hit their children.
- Incomplete sentence. While this may be a good topic, or a good title, it is not a topic sentence because it is grammatically incomplete.
- The purpose of this paragraph is to examine the causes behind the recent increase in street crime.
- Do not announce your topic or intentions.
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