Independent
Paragraphs
When learning to write in English, one of the most important skills to learn is how to write paragraphs.This page describes how to write a stand-alone paragraph.See the section on Paragraph Clusters for information on writing paragraphs in longer essays.
A paragraph is usually a group of sentences that talk about one main idea. Longer essays are commonly made up of several paragraphs. Paragraphs do not have a set length, but they should have enough sentences to develop the main idea they contain.
A paragraph usually has 3 parts:
Shorter paragraphs may omit the concluding sentence. The topic sentence tells the reader the main idea contained in the paragraph. It also limits the scope of the topic to information that can be discussed in one paragraph.
Scientists feel the collapse in the number of cod being caught in the North Atlantic is caused by several factors, but they are not sure exactly which of them is most important. Part of this uncertainty is because counting cod is very difficult as they do not return to rivers to spawn like salmon, and the North Atlantic is a large, cold, deep ocean. Several circumstances affect the cod population. One is the number of harp seals. Recently because of the European ban on seal skin imports, the numbers of seals has grown to an estimated 3,500,000. The second major factor is overfishing, particularly by Canada, the United States, and Iceland. In addition, boats from the European Union heavily fish the eastern-most part of the Grand Banks which are unregulated because they are in international waters. A third factor is weather. Recently, there has been heavy ice in winter which has cooled the water of the North Atlantic. Therefore, some scientists feel this cold water has prevented cod from reproducing as usual. Further research is needed to determine exactly what has caused the drastic drop in cod catches.
The topic sentence gives the main idea in the paragraph. It usually also includes a controlling idea that limits the topic to an area narrow enough to be discussed in one paragraph.
Two other important elements of a paragraph are unity and cohesion.
Unity means a paragraph talks about only one topic. For example, the paragraph above on the collapse of the Atlantic cod fishing industry talks only about the decrease in the numbers of cod. It does not discuss the history of cod fishing in the Atlantic. A new topic should be included in a new paragraph.
Cohesion means that your paragraph is easy to understand because its supporting sentences are written in a logical order and joined using transition signals. In the paragraph on cod fishing, the first sentence is the topic sentence and also contains the controlling idea. The second sentence gives more background about the topic. The flow of the paragraph is shown by the use of words such as "several circumstances", "one", "the second major factor", "in addition", "a third factor", "therefore", etc. For more information on cohesion, see the page of transition signals.
Well-written paragraphs should contain:
