PARAGRAPHS
FOUR
MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF A PARAGRAPH
1. Topic sentence - tells what the
paragraph is about. It doesn’t necessarily summarize the information given in
the paragraph, but it gives your reading a sense of direction. A topic sentence usually comes at the
beginning of a paragraph. It is also the most general sentence in the paragraph
because there are not many details in the sentence. It introduces a panoramic idea that you will
discuss in time. The topic sentence is
divided into two parts: the topic which is the word or phrase you are talking
about and the controlling idea that limits or controls the topic to just one
aspect. A topic can have more than one
controlling idea. Each controlling idea
would be a different paragraph.
2. Indented – short distance from the
margin.
3. All sentences or supporting details are
about one single topic. This is called unity or the logical consistency
of all the details in the paragraph. In
other words, all the sentences must refer to the main idea or the topic of the
paragraph. Sentences that do not adhere
to the rest of the sentences or do not belong in the paragraph are said to be
irrelevant. Irrelevant details, no
matter how engaging, take a paragraph in many different directions and destroy
unity. Paragraphs should also be coherent. Coherence means that the sentences
should be organized in a logical manner and should follow a definite plan of development.
4. Concluding sentence – summarizes,
restates, or evaluates the most significant ideas of the paragraph. It could also predict the condition of your
topic in the near future. Phrases such as:
In conclusion, In summary, Concluding, Summarizing are used.
Another
important characteristic is the title.
A good title determines if your work will be read or not. So, it should attract the reader’s
attention. If you write an insipid
title, people will think that the paragraph is also insipid. If you write an interesting title, the
paragraph becomes immediately very appealing.
The title should:
1. Be
short, simple, and concise.
2. Not
be a sentence.
3. Use
no period at the end. It could have a
question mark (?) or an exclamatory mark (!).
4. Follow correct punctuation rules. All important words are capitalized
except the articles (a, an, the), the coordinating conjunctions (and, or, but), and the prepositions, such as: in, on, at, for, from,
to, by, far, of, with, etc. These will be capitalized if found at the beginning of
the title. 5. Be centered - in the middle.
6. Not be underlined.