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Paragraphs are the organizational units of most writing. Like the rooms that make up a house, paragraphs vary in size depending on their purpose. In a house, a room (like a closet) might be quite small and still perfectly functional. Similarly, a paragraph can be one sentence and still serve its purpose.
Consider the following:
I had my life all figured out. I would finish college with a degree in business. I would find a good job in a Fortune 500 company. I would earn my MBA at night while working my way up the corporate ladder. Somehow in my “free time,” I would meet a perfect partner and get married. We would settle down in a nice house in the suburbs a short distance from the city. We would have a big goofy dog named Clive and a nice big yard where he could run around. Maybe later there would be kids running around in that yard as well.
Those plans did not include cancer, but cancer had plans for me.
In this case, the one-sentence paragraph delivers an impact that might be lost if it was part of a longer paragraph. However, this sentence wouldn’t work as an entire paragraph unless the essay were about something else entirely.
Maybe later there would be kids running around in that yard as well.
Short paragraphs are far more common (and thus more acceptable) in personal writing and creative writing than in academic writing. In academic writing, paragraphs are usually several sentences long. The following sections focus on this style of writing.
Most paragraphs in academic writing will be made up of several sentences, which focus on one governing idea. When the writer is ready to move on to the next idea, they move on to the next paragraph.
Most paragraphs should have:
EXAMPLE
If you wanted to write a very short paragraph about why people love sandwiches, you might make an outline like this:That outline can then be broken down piece by piece to evaluate what each element does.
As mentioned previously, each paragraph will have three things:
The paragraph begins with a topic sentence, which is a sentence expressing the main idea of a paragraph. This is usually the first sentence.
One might surmise that people love sandwiches because of how versatile they are.
See how it explicitly states the main purpose or idea that you know the paragraph is going to cover?
Then you have the supporting sentences. Those will each do something slightly different; however, as a group, they are the sentences of a paragraph that offer:
See how each of the three sentences from the above paragraph adds a new piece of support for that main idea?
Finally, most lengthy paragraphs will end with a concluding sentence, which is a sentence that either summarizes the paragraph or creates a transition to the next paragraph.
If a paragraph is all on its own, it needs a sentence to conclude it by summarizing and reprising its info. If the paragraph is very short, it may not need much conclusion.
Thus sandwiches are both versatile in form and function, proving that just about anyone can love them.
In general, the concluding sentence will look like this one does. Note that this sentence does not just rehash the topic sentence. Instead, it adds something new to the paragraph by reminding the reader of how the supporting sentences help support the main idea that the topic sentence presents.
Source: This tutorial was authored by Martina Shabram for Sophia Learning. Please see our Terms of Use.
