What you’ll learn to do: recognize and evaluate effective paragraphs

The paragraph is the building block of essay writing. The word itself, according to the Oxford Dictionary Online, is defined as “a distinct section of a piece of writing, usually dealing with a single theme and indicated by a new line, indentation, or numbering.”

Paragraphs are important for ease of reading; they help to offer ideas in “chunks” that the eye and brain can more easily comprehend (as opposed to offering information in one large block of text, which is hard to read).

In academic writing, paragraphs show changes in ideas or further development of ideas. Typically, paragraphs organize ideas that develop from a thesis statement’s main idea. Paragraphs are fundamental units of academic writing; without good paragraphs, you may struggle to convey your ideas and claims.

This section will introduce you to strategies and techniques for writing effective paragraphs.