WRITING A BASIC PARAGRAPH What is a Paragraph

WRITING A BASIC PARAGRAPH

What is a Paragraph? A paragraph is a group of related sentences that presents one main idea. It contains a topic sentence, supporting details, and a conclusion. In total, a paragraph must have at least 5 sentences. The first line of a paragraph should be indented 5 spaces.

Topic Sentence The sentence that tells the reader the main idea of the paragraph. It tells us what the paragraph is about. It will be the first sentence in a paragraph. A good topic sentence introduces the topic and makes a point about the topic.

Supporting Details that expand, support or develop the idea in your topic sentence. There should be at least 3 supporting detail sentences in your paragraph.

Conclusion Ends or finishes the written discussion that was introduced in the topic sentence.

Narrowing Your Topic It is important not to pick a topic that is too broad. For example, you might want to write about sports. Choose something more specific such as basketball or even better the NBA.

Pre-Writing Strategies Brainstorming Jot ideas to write about on a piece of notebook paper. Talk it over with a friend or parent. Choose topics that interest you. Not necessary to write complete sentences.

Visually Organizing Your Ideas Using a Graphic Organizer Use a graphic organizer to plan your paragraph in an organized manner. Examples of graphic organizers include a web or chart.

Example Web

Writing Your Paragraph Now you are ready to develop your ideas from your graphic organizer into complete sentences. Make sure that each sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a punctuation mark.

Editing Your Paragraph Use spell check to go over your work for spelling and grammar errors. Read your paragraph aloud. Does it make sense? Did you accidently omit any words? Have a friend or family member read your paragraph. Is your paragraph understandable to him/her?