Paragraph structure
Good paragraph structure makes your writing clear and easy to follow. It helps readers understand your ideas and makes it obvious that you’ve met the assessment requirements.
Constructing a strong paragraph
In the body section of essays, reports and similar assignments, your paragraphs should be presented in a logical order according to how one main idea connects with the next main idea.
The best way to achieve a logical order is through planning. Before you start writing the paragraphs, set out the structure of your paragraph topics.
It's important that one paragraph = one idea.
As a rule, begin a new paragraph each time you want to introduce a new:
- idea or topic
- part of your argument.
Calculate how many paragraphs you need
Distribute the word count evenly among the paragraphs. This gives you a goal for the length of each body paragraph.
Now that you have the overall structure of your essay planned out, you can go on to planning the individual paragraphs themselves.
Plan and structure your paragraphs
The number of paragraphs will depend on how many topics or elements you need to cover in your essay or task.
This is because each paragraph will explore a [single idea].
A coherent paragraph will only explain and support that idea, nothing else.
If all paragraphs are structured around a single idea, then that idea guides what to discuss in each paragraph. Each paragraph will tackle one part of your response to the task instructions.
Word count
Giving yourself guidelines in terms of word count for each paragraph can help the scope of your writing. As a general guide, academic paragraphs for undergraduate essays are anywhere between 200-500 words long. Smaller than 200 words can make the writing - and therefore the argument of your whole piece - feel fragmented and hard to follow.
Evidence from the literature
Generally, try to include a minimum of two different academic sources per paragraph. You may have more than two, but you ideally don’t want to have less. This is because academic paragraphs are built on the synthesis of literature.
If you develop an argument from a single source, your argument will be weaker than it might be if you developed it from multiple sources. Citing two or more sources in a paragraph is more convincing and indicates to your reader that your evidence has been synthesised.
Paragraph structure is important because it is designed to help you write a convincing argument.
Strong structure moves your reader through the ‘parts’ of the paragraph so that its central idea becomes clear and is convincing.
The parts of the paragraph include:
Topic sentence
Your topic sentence is the first sentence of each paragraph. It introduces your reader to the central idea of the paragraph. That is, the topic sentence tells your reader the topic of the paragraph to come. This helps the paragraph make sense to your reader and tells them what to expect.
Evidence
Incorporating evidence from your research in every paragraph helps you explain, explore and contextualise the paragraph’s central idea. This shows your reader where your ideas were found and helps strengthen and support your arguments so that they are evidence-based.
Explanation
It is important that your own voice is present in your paragraph – not just the voices of the authors you are referencing as evidence. Your voice will be used in a few ways.
Firstly, to help you explain the evidence you incorporate so that your reader understands it and sees its relevance and significance.
Secondly, to introduce and link the different ideas in your paragraph so that the paragraph flows clearly and logically.
Concluding sentence
There are a few approaches to writing a concluding sentence. One straight forward approach is to simply return to the topic of the paragraph.
In this way, paragraph structure mirrors the larger structure of the overall essay, where the topic sentence is like a small introduction, and the concluding sentence is like a small conclusion.
A clear concluding sentence that reminds your reader what the overall topic of the paragraph was will make the paragraph feel complete and cohesive.
Topic sentences and concluding sentences act like a frame around your paragraph. Your argument and its supporting evidence are contained within this frame. Your paragraph will make sense, and be convincing, if the frame and what lies inside it are on the same topic.
Importantly, your topic sentence should do two things:
- Refer to, and mirror the language of, the task topic you have been given.
- Tell your reader the specific focus of this paragraph in relation to the overall task topic.
Example
If your essay topic is:
- Critically analyse the role of the registered nurse in aged care with reference to the legal and professional principles of practice.
Your topic sentence for the first paragraph of your essay may be:
- [Refer to the topic] When critically analysing the role of the registered nurse in aged care [end refer to the topic], [focus of the paragraph] the legal principle of autonomy is fundamental to consider [end focus of the paragraph]....
Similarly, your concluding sentence also has two requirements:
-
- Return to the specific focus of this paragraph
- Link to the next topic – the focus of the next paragraph
For example, the concluding sentence for your first paragraph may be:
Example with section labels
... [Focus of this paragraph] Registered nurses must therefore uphold their professional principles with particular rigour when caring for patients in the aged care sector. This applies specifically to the principle of autonomy [End focus of this paragraph], [Focus of the next paragraph] but also to others, including non-maleficence [End of focus of the next paragraph]....
Example as used in an essay
... Registered nurses must therefore uphold their professional principles with particular rigour when caring for patients in the aged care sector. This applies specifically to the principle of autonomy, but also to others, including non-maleficence....
To make your ideas flow from one sentence to another, you can use linking words or phrases in [brackets] to great effect as shown below.
Example with section labels
[Topic sentence] Exploring the world on long-distance ocean journeys can have considerable impacts on the health of sailors [end topic sentence]. [Linking words/phrases] For example [end linking words/phrases], the sea voyage itself is shown to have lasting effects on the body’s immune system resulting in an array of illnesses [Supporting evidence] (Lu et al., 2010) [end supporting evidence]. [Linking words/phrases] In particular [end linking words/phrases], cardiovascular disease is the most common ailment identified amongst seafaring crew members [Supporting evidence] (Hearty, 2009) [end supporting evidence]. [Linking words/phrases] Moreover [end linking words/phrases], studies by [Supporting evidence] Sponge and Lope (2011) [end supporting evidence] indicate that these health effects are mainly due to two contributing factors: diet and lack of physical exercise on board the ship. “There’s too many worm-infested crackers and not enough deck scrubbing” explains one ship captain [Supporting evidence] (Blackbeard, 1720) [end supporting evidence].
Example as used in an essay
Exploring the world on long-distance ocean journeys can have considerable impacts on the health of sailors. For example, the sea voyage itself is shown to have lasting effects on the body’s immune system resulting in an array of illnesses (Lu et al., 2010). In particular, cardiovascular disease is the most common ailment identified amongst seafaring crew members (Hearty, 2009). Moreover, studies by Sponge and Lope (2011) indicate that these health effects are mainly due to two contributing factors: diet and lack of physical exercise on board the ship. “There’s too many worm-infested crackers and not enough deck scrubbing” explains one ship captain (Blackbeard, 1720).