Writing Center                                                          

Useful Verbs for Essays

Writing the Perfect Paragraph

How to Write a Literary Analysis

Working Outline for Essays

Tools for Analyzing Sentences   

Writing the Perfect Paragraph

Your main goal in writing a solid paragraph is to do the following:

• Begin with a discussible point (the topic sentence—what is the paragraph about)

• Stick to the point (provide evidence or support for the topic sentence)

• Prove the point; don’t merely repeat it (now, explain the evidence or support)

• Link your sentences to make your ideas easy to follow (link by using transitional words and phrases, by repeating key words or pronouns, or by using similar sentence patterns).

The paragraph should be structured as follows:

1^st sentence—topic sentence (what the paragraph is about)

2^nd sentence—1^st piece of evidence or support for the topic sentence

3^rd sentence—back up the 2^nd sentence with more explanation as to     how or why this supports the topic sentence.

4^th sentence—2^nd piece of evidence or support for the topic sentence

5^th sentence—back up the 4^th sentence with more explanation as to how or why this supports the topic sentence.

6^th sentence—3^rd piece of evidence or support for the topic sentence

7^th sentence—back up the 6^th sentence with more explanation as to how or why this supports the topic sentence.

8^th sentence—concluding sentence—sum up the paragraph with a conclusion.

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