Structure of a Well-Written Paragraph

American paragraph structure is different than the ones in other cultures:

• The topic sentence:

- One central idea
- An opinion as an opener
- One thesis statement
- Has to be general
- Should be indented at the beginning

• The body contains the details (sentences and all other ideas should be directly related to the main idea).

- Could be any length
- Details:
Why is this important?

What are the reasons?

Are there any examples of this?

- There are two ways of ordering details: taking into account their level of importance, and/or 
chronologically (order of events)

- The body should contain:
  Flow- bridges (Sentences with clear connections to preceding and subsequent 
  sentences, and paragraphs whose topic sentence is connected to the closing      sentence of the preceding one, and so on)

Key terms

Variety of words

Links between words
Synonyms in order to avoid repetition

• Closing sentence

- Reminder of topic

- Must keep the reader thinking

- Must prepare the reader for the next paragraph

• Other things to take into account in order to write well-written paragraphs and academic papers

- Always ask yourself about what is expected of you
- Use and make yourself fond of your module handbooks
- What are the learning outcomes within this activity?
- Use key direction words
- Make a plan
- Reread and edit
- Proof read
- Avoid going off on tangents
- Always have the title in front of you
- Provide a wide range of arguments

Students: Rodrigo Alvarenga, Santiago Mazzei

Cited Works

engVid.com (2009, May 19). Parts of a Paragraph - English Academic Writing Introduction
[Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCuExRE6N-4
engVid.com (2013, July 22). Writing Skills: The Paragraph 
[Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IFDuhdB2Hk
Edge Hill University (2013, Julne 20). Introduction to Academic Writing [Video file]. 
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CelpkwseU5U