| Paragraphs
Paragraph Development Options
- Provide examples
of the paragraph’s topic
- Narrate a
story about the paragraph’s
topic
- Describe
the process of the paragraph’s topic
- Give a detailed
description of the paragraph’s topic
- Provide a
comparison and contrast between the paragraph’s
topic and something else
- Compare something
analogous to the paragraph’s topic
- Describe
how the paragraph’s
topic is the cause or effect of something else
- Classify
and divide the paragraph’s topic
- Define the
paragraph’s
topic
- Analyze the
paragraph’s topic
- Number the
paragraph’s
topic and subtopics (Perelman, Paradis, & Barrett, 1998, p.
233)
Composing Paragraphs
- Pattern #1
- Begin with a base sentence.
- Add a supporting sentence.
- Add a second supporting sentence.
- Add a third supporting sentence.
- Conclude with a final supporting
sentence (with a possible transition to the next paragraph).
- Pattern
#2
- Write a base sentence.
- Qualify that base.
- Add a specific detail.
- Add another detail.
- Qualify that detail.
- Conclude
(with a possible transition to the next paragraph). (D'Angelo,
1994, p. 288)
How to Revise Paragraphs
Answer the following Questions about EACH paragraph:
- What is the
point of the paragraph?
- How does the paragraph function in
the argument?
- How does the paragraph function in the paper as
a whole?
- How does the paragraph relate to the paragraph above?
- How does
the paragraph relate to the paragraph below?
- How does the paragraph
transition to the paragraph above?
- How does the paragraph transition
to the paragraph below?
More Online Sources for Paragraphs
The Paragraph:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_pgrph2.html
Paragraphing: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_pgrph.html
References
D’Angelo.
F. J. (1994). Process and thought in composition: With
handbook (custom edition). New York: HarperCollins Custom Books.
Perelman, L.
C., Paradis, J., & Barrett, E. (1998). The Mayfield
handbook
of technical and scientific writing. Mountain View,
CA: Mayfield
Publishing Company.
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