The Writing Center at Washington University

PARAGRAPHS
by Ruth Berson

Why have paragraphs at all? The sight of a new paragraph prepares the reader for the introduction of a new idea or further development of an idea already introduced. The new idea should be readily apparent to the reader. In general it is best to state it clearly at the beginning of the paragraph and to relate the new idea to both the paragraph before and to the thesis of your paper. The rest of the paragraph should develop the idea you stated in this topic sentence. Here you have some choices, based on the kind of paragraph you are writing. For example, if your topic sentence is "I grew up in a quiet country town," you could develop this idea by describing the town or narrating some events that took place there. If your topic sentence is "Deciding what computer to buy was a complicated task," you might develop the idea by narrating the process you went through to make your decision. If your topic sentence is "I chose Wash U because of the excellence of its Women's Studies Program," you could develop it by comparing and contrasting it with other women's studies programs. These methods of development (description, narration, process, and comparison and contrast) are called rhetorical modes. Other modes include definition, classification, and causal analysis.

After you have written your paragraph, check to make sure it has the three key features of a good paragraph: unity, completeness, and coherence. Unity means that all the sentences in the paragraphillustrate or explain the main idea, and not any other idea. Completeness means you have supplied enough of this illustration or explanation to support your topic sentence. And coherence means each sentence is connected to the next so that it is easy for the reader to follow your thought.

One simple means of ensuring paragraph coherence is to repeat key terms. For example, in the preceding paragraph I have repeated "unity" "completeness" and "coherence." There's nothing subtle or complicated about this technique, but sometimes writers fail to make use of it because they think they should avoid repetition and so try to find a synonym for their key term. This is a judgment call between variety (avoiding repetition) and clarity (repeating the key term). In my opinion, clarity trumps variety in this case.

Another means of achieving paragraph coherence is to use transitional phrases. Transitional phrases such as "furthermore," "however," "nevertheless," or "consequently," helps the reader understand what relation that sentence has to the one that came before it. Here is a very brief catalog of some transitional markers:

to indicate addition: again, also, likewise, moreover
to indicate cause and effect: as a result, consequently, therefore
to indicate comparison: likewise, similarly
to indicate concession: although this may be true, at the same time, even though
to indicate contrast: and yet, however, in contrast, nevertheless

I once had a student in freshman composition who handed in a paper I was sure she had not written herself. It was much too polished. But she insisted it was her own work, and when I examined the paperagain I realized it was not as polished as I had thought and (sigh of relief) there was still stuff I could teach her (it was my very first semester of teaching). What had me fooled was her incredibly skilled use of transitional devices. They dazzled me so that I overlooked the problems in her paper. The moral is not that you should use transitions to make you appear a better writer than you are, but that a "furthermore" or "however" dropped in exactly the right place gives your paper a coherence that will really impress readers.