Academic Writing 1 Slide 5

Academic Writing

Session 5 – Paragraph Structure

Session Overview
•This section explains the features of a good paragraph and its function in a piece of writing. Related concepts such as paragraph unity, completeness, and coherence are discussed.
OBJECTIVES
•By the end of this section you will be able to do the following:
–Write well-structured paragraphs
–Recognise the roles of each part of the paragraph
–Achieve coherence by following logical order and using transitions to link sentences
–Write meaningful paragraphs

Session Outline
The key topics to be covered in the session are as follows:
•Structure of the single paragraph
What is paragraph
The topic sentence
Supporting sentences
Summary sentences
•Paragraph unity and completeness
•Paragraph coherence
Logical order
Cohesive devices
•Multiple paragraph structure
•Revising paragraph introduction

Reading List
a)Section One, Chapter 1 Of Buscemi A Reader For College Writers (2008), pp. 53-80
b)Academic Writing: A Handbook For International Students, Bailey (2011), Chapter 1.10, pp. 77-82

Topic One
STRUCTURE OF THE SINGLE PARAGRAPH

What is a Paragraph?

The word ‘Paragraph’ comes from the words ‘para’ and graphus’ glossed to mean ‘to mark a change in writing or a subdivision of a bigger piece of writing’.

The paragraph therefore is a group of related sentences that develop one idea or point.

The paragraph is very crucial in writing essays or in writing compositions in English.

In many ways the paragraph can be likened to an atom. The Atom is also made up of protons, neutrons and electrons.

The paragraph like the Atom, also has three components, the topic sentence, supporting sentences and the summary sentence which can be isolated and analysed for their roles and importance.

Topic Two
THE TOPIC SENTENCE

The first component of a paragraph is the TOPIC SENTENCE.

It is important to know that the Topic Sentence normally occurs at the beginning of a paragraph. However, it may occur at the middle or sometimes at the end of a paragraph.

It is profitable to have the Topic Sentence at the beginning of the paragraph to guide the writer to be able to select ideas that support the Topic Sentence
The topic sentence tells us at a first glance what the whole paragraph is going to talk about. For example, if we say ‘Kofi is irresponsible,’ immediately, and without reading the rest of the paragraph, we expect to read why Kofi is described as irresponsible.

The Topic Sentence also contains a central idea. In the case of our example above, issues related to Kofi’s irresponsibility are what we are looking for. So, if Kofi has other qualities apart from being irresponsible, it is expected that such qualities would be discussed in another paragraph and not this present one.

This central idea which limits what we want to discuss or explain in a paragraph is known as ‘The Controlling Idea’. The Controlling idea is ‘the nucleus’ of the topic sentence.

Sample question
•Write two topic sentences and clearly identify and explain the controlling idea in each.

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Thank You!