English

• Paragraph


  A group of sentences about a certain idea or topic, considered as one of the building blocks of essays and all other genres of prose
• Factors to consider in writing a paragraph


  • They will enable you to effectively express your ideas and will help your readers easily understand your content
• Structure


  The main parts of your paragraph - the topic sentence, the supporting sentences, and the concluding sentence
• Topic sentence


  Presents the main idea of the paragraph, usually found at the beginning but can also be stated in the middle or the end, directs and summarizes the paragraph
• Supporting sentences


  Provide details, facts, explanations, examples, etc. to expand and discuss the topic sentence
• Concluding sentence


  Sums up the ideas in the paragraph, usually restates the main idea and sometimes provides conclusions about the paragraph
• Idea Development and Organization

  • An effective paragraph should be unified, clear, coherent, and well-developed
• General to particular/specific pattern

  Start with a broad topic followed by supporting details, can be done by providing examples, explanations and vivid descriptions, use signal words or transitions to express general and particular ideas
• General ideas


  Broad and unspecific statements that need to be explained further
• Signal words for general statements


  • generally
  • primarily
  • largely
  • First
  • furthermore
• Signal words for major details

  • second
  • moreover
  • third
  • in addition
  • in general
  • another
  • next
• Particular or specific ideas

  Clarify, describe, illustrate, provide examples, or explain general ideas, support the general idea
• Signal words for particular ideas


  • for instance
  • specifically
  • for example
  • particularly
  • to illustrate
  • to be specific
  • such as
  • like
• Claim and counterclaim pattern


  Includes arguments, their reasons, and evidence that proves your stand
• Claim


  A person's stand on a certain subject or issue
• Counterclaim


  The opposing viewpoint on a topic or a stand
• Reasons and evidence are important to support and explain the validity of an argument
• Signal verbs and transition words or phrases can be used to exhibit the relationship of the claim, the reason and the evidence
• Signal verbs for claims

  • agree
  • claim
  • Conclude
  • discuss
  • illustrate
  • observe
  • Say
  • show
  • suggest
  • support
  • Think
  • propose
  • present
  • point out
  • state explain
  • argue
  • contradict
  • otherwise
• Signal words/verbs for counterclaims

  • refute
  • however
  • notwithstanding
  • oppose
  • in contrast
  • nevertheless
  • disagree
  • but
  • in opposition
  • on the other hand/
  • although...
  • while it may be
  • others may say
  • on the contrary
  • even though...
  • true...still
  • that...but
  • it is often thought/ supposed/imagined...
  • it's easy to think... but when you look at the facts
• Signal words for citing evidence


  • the work of
  • according to...
  • evidence shows...
  • indicates...
  • the study reveals...
  • based on the evidence/data...
  • (the author) claims