Paragraphs

PARAGRAPHS Paragraphs in essays: Are the building blocks of your essay Contain and develop a single idea Your essay consists of a number of paragraphs, organised into a logical order. Have two components – a topic sentence and development

Topic sentences State your main idea in a topic sentence at the start of the paragraph. A topic sentence controls the purpose of the paragraph. It tells the reader what the paragraph is about. Other sentences provide evidence or develop the idea. Topic sentences may also allow a reader to skim a piece of writing for major points.

TOPIC SENTENCES Topic sentences: Summarise the key idea of the paragraph Are usually the first sentence in each paragraph To check if you are using topic sentences appropriately, you should read the first sentence of each paragraph of your essay and all your main ideas should be clearly stated.

Paragraphs should all start with a topic sentence. Some paragraphs will have a final sentence which restates the topic and reaches a new conclusion. Avoid short paragraphs. Develop your paragraphs adequately. Avoid excessively long paragraphs as they are difficult for your reader to digest.

Emphasise key ideas, but avoid the immediate restatement of an idea. Use connectives - Connectives help smooth the flow of thoughts from sentence to sentence and between paragraphs. For example, 'similarly', 'however' and 'therefore' used at the beginning of a paragraph indicate that the ideas in the paragraph relate to the one before.

Write a short piece on a topic or issue from the NZ Herald Scan the NZ Herald on-line and select any news or topic of interest to you Read the article and other related articles in previous issues on the same topic. Write a short piece on the article giving your response in the concluding paragraph. See next slide for details

More details: 3-4 paragraphs only I page or Follow paragraphing principles 12 point font, 1.5 line spacing