Basic Paragraph Structure

In many languages, the fundamental unit of composition is the paragraph. A paragraph

consists of several sentences that are grouped together. This group of sentences together
discuss one main subject. In U.S. formal academic English, paragraphs have three principal
parts. These three parts are the topic sentence, body sentences, and the concluding sentence.
We will also talk briefly about details in paragraphs.

The Topic Sentence

A topic sentence usually comes at the beginning of a paragraph; that is, it is usually the first
sentence in a formal paragraph. Not only is a topic sentence the first sentence of a paragraph,
but, more importantly, it is the most general sentence in a paragraph. What does "most
general" mean? It means that there are not many details in the sentence, but that the sentence
introduces an overall idea that you want to discuss later in the paragraph.

For example, suppose that you want to write a paragraph about the natural landmarks of your
hometown. The first part of your paragraph might look like this:

My hometown is famous for several amazing natural features. First, it is noted for the
Wheaton River, which is very wide and beautiful. Also, on the other side of the town is Wheaton
Hill, which is unusual because it is very steep.

(Notice how the first sentence begins with "My hometown..." a few spaces to the right of the
paragraph edge. This is an indentation. All paragraphs in English MUST begin with an
indentation.)

Note how the first sentence, My hometown, Wheaton, is famous for several amazing
geographical features, is the most general statement. This sentence is different from the two
sentences that follow it, since the second and third sentences mention specific details about the
town's geography, and are not general statements.

Here are some examples of sentences that cannot be used as topic sentences

1. My hometown is famous because it is located by Wheaton River, which is very wide, and
because it is built near an unusually steep hill called Wheaton Hill.

2. There are two reasons why some people like to buy cars with automatic transmission and two
reasons why others like cars with manual transmission.

3. Clouds are white.

The problem with sentence #1 is that it contains too many details. Topic sentences are general,
and details should appear later in the paragraph. A better topic sentence would be like the one
mentioned above, My hometown is famous for several amazing geographical features.

Sentence #2 is not appropriate as a topic sentence because it mentions two topics, not just one.
Paragraphs are usually about one main thing and so their topic sentences should also be about
only one main thing.

The problem with sentence #3 is that it is too general. It is also very boring! Would you like to
read a paragraph with this topic sentence? Most people would not.
Supporting Sentences

Consider again the above-mentioned, short paragraph:

My hometown, Wheaton, is famous for several amazing natural features. First, it is noted
for the Wheaton River, which is very wide and beautiful. Also, on the other side of the town is
Wheaton Hill, which is unusual because it is very steep.

The second and third sentences are called supporting sentences. They are called "supporting"
because they "support," or explain, the idea expressed in the topic sentence. Of course,
paragraphs in English often have more than two supporting ideas. The paragraph above is
actually a very short paragraph. At minimum, you should have at least five to seven sentences
in your paragraph. Here we can see our paragraph about Wheaton with a few more supporting
sentences in bold font:

My hometown is famous for several amazing natural features. First, it is noted for the
Wheaton River, which is very wide and beautiful. Also, on the other side of the town is Wheaton
Hill, which is unusual because it is very steep. The third amazing feature is the Big Old Tree.
This tree stands two hundred feet tall and is probably about six hundred years old.

The Concluding Sentence

In formal paragraphs you will sometimes see a sentence at the end of the paragraph which
summarizes the information that has been presented. This is the concluding sentence. You
can think of a concluding sentence as a sort of topic sentence in reverse.

You can understand concluding sentences with this example. Consider a hamburger that you
can buy at a fast-food restaurant.* A hamburger has a top bun (a kind of bread), meat, cheese,
lettuce, and other elements in the middle of the hamburger, and a bottom bun. Note how the top
bun and the bottom bun are very similar. The top bun, in a way, is like a topic sentence, and
the bottom bun is like the concluding sentence. Both buns "hold" the meat, onions, and so on.
Similarly, the topic sentence and concluding sentence "hold" the supporting sentences in the
paragraph. Let's see how a concluding sentence (in bold font) might look in our sample
paragraph about Wheaton:

My hometown is famous for several amazing natural features. First, it is noted for the
Wheaton River, which is very wide and beautiful. Also, on the other side of the town is Wheaton
Hill, which is unusual because it is very steep. The third amazing feature is the Big Old Tree.
This tree stands two hundred feet tall and is probably about six hundred years old. These three
landmarks are truly amazing and make my hometown a famous place.

Notice how the concluding sentence, these three landmarks are truly amazing and make my
hometown a famous place, summarizes the information in the paragraph. Notice also how the
concluding sentence is similar to, but not exactly the same as, the topic sentence.

Not all academic paragraphs contain concluding sentences, especially if the paragraph is very
short. However, if your paragraph is very long, it is a good idea to use a concluding sentence.

Details in Paragraphs

The short paragraph in this lesson is a fairly complete paragraph, but it lacks details. Whenever
possible, you should include enough details in your paragraphs to help your reader understand
exactly what you are writing about. In the paragraph about Wheaton, three natural landmarks
are mentioned, but we do not know very much about them. For example, we could add a
sentence or two about Wheaton river concerning HOW wide it is or WHY it is beautiful.
Consider this revision (and note the additional details in bold):

My hometown is famous for several amazing natural features. First, it is noted for the
Wheaton River, which is very wide and beautiful. On either side of this river, which is 175
feet wide, are many willow trees which have long branches that can move gracefully in
the wind. In autumn the leaves of these trees fall and cover the riverbanks like golden
snow. Also, on the other side of the town is Wheaton Hill, which is unusual because it is very
steep. Even though it is steep, climbing this hill is not dangerous, because there are
some firm rocks along the sides that can be used as stairs. There are no trees around
this hill, so it stands clearly against the sky and can be seen from many miles away. The
third amazing feature is the Big Old Tree. This tree stands two hundred feet tall and is probably
about six hundred years old. These three landmarks are truly amazing and make my hometown
a famous place.

If we wished, we could also add more details to the paragraph to describe the third natural
feature of the area, the Big Old Tree.

A Note on Formality.

In addition to having a particular kind of structure, academic paragraphs (and multi-paragraph

essays, which will be topic of another lesson) are different from "ordinary writing" (such as letter
writing) in that certain kinds of expressions are not allowed. For example, in formal essays, you
should not use contractions such as don't or aren't. Instead, you should write out the words in
full, for example, do not and are not.