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5a Creating strong paragraphs

5aCreating strong paragraphs

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Quick Help: Editing the paragraphs in your writing

Most readers of English come to any piece of formal or academic writing with certain expectations about paragraphs:

Paragraphs will begin and end with important information.
The topic sentence will often let readers know what a paragraph is about.
A paragraph will make sense as a whole; its words and sentences will be clearly related.
A paragraph will relate to the paragraphs around it.

Let us look now at the elements in a well-written paragraph—one that is easy for readers to understand and follow.

I never knew anyone who’d grown up in Jackson without being afraid of Mrs. Calloway, our librarian. She ran the Library absolutely by herself, from the desk where she sat with her back to the books and facing the stairs, her dragon eye on the front door, where who knew what kind of person might come in from the public? SILENCE in big black letters was on signs tacked up everywhere. She herself spoke in her normally commanding voice; every word could be heard all over the Library above a steady seething sound coming from her electric fan; it was the only fan in the Library and stood on her desk, turned directly onto her streaming face.

—EUDORA WELTY, One Writer’s Beginnings

This paragraph begins with a general statement of the main idea: that everyone who grew up in Jackson feared Mrs. Calloway. All the other sentences then give specific details about why she inspired such fear. This example demonstrates the three qualities essential to most academic paragraphs: unity, development, and coherence. It focuses on one main idea (unity); its main idea is supported with specifics (development); and its parts are clearly related (coherence).