Writing Skill : How to Write a Paragraph

Hello, everyone. How's everything? Did you practice a lot? Did you practice all of the major skills? Well, if you did, that's good. Now, I want to give some tips about writing a paragraph. What is a paragraph? If you have read my post before, you must've known it already. If you haven't, click here to read the post. Anyway, let's continue. Here we go.





Writing a good paragraph takes a LOT of practice. You need to be patient in terms of practicing your writing skill. The very best way to learn and become good at writing is by reading and writing a lot. Making good paragraphs is necessary, especially for academic or formal writings. While informal writings don't really need really good paragraphs.

Planning Session

A paragraph that you're writing could contain everything that you want to put. But, you have to make sure that you will tell one particular topic in a paragraph. It will not be a good one if you mix all the topics that you have in your mind. So, what you need to do first is to plan how the paragraph will be. Pick a topic that you want to write. For example, you can choose one of your friends and describe his/her look. That's all up to you.

The second step is to make the pre-writing draft. Make a draft of the ideas that you know about this topic. This will make it easier to be written. For example, your topic is one of your friend's appearance, then you can write anything that is related to his/her appearance (i.e. his/her face, hair, eyes, body, etc.). Maybe you need to do a little research when it comes to pre-writing because it needs facts to support your topic.

The third step is to think about how you want your paragraph arranged. This is about the organization/development of the paragraph. The following are typical organizational patterns used for paragraph development:

Chronological Order--according to time
Spatial Order - visually
Order of Importance - most important point comes last, or vice versa
Examples - main idea is supported by examples
Comparing and Contrasting
Classification - topic is broken down into categories according to common characteristics
Process and Analysis
Cause and Effect

You can see the examples here.

So, after you're done with all those steps, you can start writing your paragraph.

Characteristics of a Good Paragraph

Before starting to write your paragraph, you need to know the characteristics of a good paragraph. 

A good paragraph is characterized by unity, coherence, and adequate development.

Unity: State the main idea of the paragraph in a clearly constructed topic sentence. Make sure each sentence is related to the central thought.

Coherence: Arrange ideas in a clear, logical order. Provide appropriate transitions to the paragraph to make it smoother.

Adequate development: Develop your paragraph with specific details and examples.

That's all. But maybe you need to google some information about this, so make sure you googled it. :)

The Components of a Good Paragraph

A good paragraph is a mini-essay. It should demonstrate three components:

Introduction, i.e., a topic sentence

Body, i.e., supporting details/sentences

Closing/concluding sentence

Writing Session

Write a topic sentence. That's the first step. A topic sentence is a sentence that covers everything about the topic or the main idea. A topic sentence works like an umbrella because it covers all the ideas in your paragraphs. A topic sentence needs to be clear and general. It is also better to use active voice rather than passive voice. 

The next step is to fill in the supporting details. Write the ideas that you have written on your draft before. But, remember, they need to be in line with the topic sentence. If your topic sentence talks about how beautiful your friend's face is, then you have to write the details about her face. Otherwise, your reader will be confused.

Once you're done, the next step will be writing a concluding sentence. This sentence sums everything up. This sentence will strengthen your sentences before. The role of this sentence is to convince the reader that what you're writing is true.

Finising Session

Once you've finished the paragraph, read it 2 - 3 times. First, check for grammatical or spelling errors. You can try reading it aloud to make sure that you have left no mistake(s) in it. Second, check for the ideas. Are they good enough to support the topic sentence? If yes, congratulations! You have finished it.

You can have a friend to check your work of miracle, your writing. Ask them to read, and comment about everything in your paragraph. It's better to ask a friend that understands English just like you, or maybe better than you. Take their critiques and advices, because they may be very helpful for you to fix your mistakes.

That's it! It is complicated, but everyone can do this. At least, if they try. You will never get any better unless you try your best. Keep exploring information about English on the net. Keep using English in your daily life. That way, you will improve and succeed before you know it.

Thanks for reading. See you soon!

sources: 

http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Paragraph

http://trinitysem.edu/how-to-write-good-paragraphs/

http://classroom.synonym.com/five-characteristics-good-topic-sentence-4982.html

http://www.flyingwords.com/paragraph-organizationpatterns.html

http://img.wikinut.com/img/73dw5c3.13.ujbuu/jpeg/724x5000/Paragraph-Writing.jpeg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/af/59/f3/af59f337a8593b428c82a0f1fccc4604.jpg

http://comps.canstockphoto.com/can-stock-photo_csp11711120.jpg

http://schoolnew.discoveryeducation.com/clipart/images/writing-color.gif

http://images.clipartpanda.com/buddy-clipart-free-clip-art-books-reading.jpg