Great write-ups with captivating ideas sometimes fail to inspire. This is mainly attributed to a lack of organization, poor arrangement of sentences and paragraphs, or both. Paragraphs are an important feature of all essays. It brings meaning to the overall structure by putting related ideas into the introduction, body, and conclusion. In addition to the paragraphs, longer essays will have headings and subheadings.

At superior.com, we have a qualified team of writers who will not help you develop strong paragraphs but help with the most skills of essay writing. You have unlimited access to quality articles and essays to accelerate your quest for quality essays, including paragraphs, and paragraph writing skills. We also provide free resources on a broad array of areas including, topic sentences, thesis writing, and types of paragraphs. Our resources are written with you in mind. It is easy to follow and intended to spark a hunger for a top-quality scholarship.

What is a paragraph?

A paragraph is a group of interrelated sentences arranged to support a logical conclusion. As such, decent paragraphs will prevent you from straying from the main topic and is critical for sustaining a strong argument.  It also helps your readers to follow your essay.

The extent to which paragraphs are used, the way they are arranged, and how many they are, will vary depending on the type of essay. However, you must adhere to the cardinal rule of paragraph writing, which is, it must address a core idea. Moreover, your paragraphs should be arranged coherently and consistently by the use of logically connected sentences throughout the paper. Coherence should also be maintained by the use of paragraphs that develop the main topic and purpose of the paper. These elements will be discussed in detail.

In essay writing, nothing is more crucial than writing a solid paragraph. It is obvious from the way people learn that this is true. Long before you start writing essays, you learn letters, then you progress to words, after which you put the sentences into comprehensible paragraphs. Coherent paragraphs can only be realized through words that build on a single idea. This is a great place to start, especially for beginners. Yet, the best paragraphs must go beyond simple coherence.

For instance, you must understand how to write a good topic sentence, make use of supporting details and be effective in the use of transitional words, before crowning it with a strong concluding sentence.  In essence, you should have your ideas in place, place them in the right place, know where they terminate, and where new ones should commence.

The fundamental edict of paragraph writing is to focus on one idea per graph. The net import of this is that every time you introduce a new idea, you should put it in a new paragraph. The most effective way to structure a paragraph is to focus on an argument, buttressed with numerous pieces of evidence. In some instances, having different ideas is permissible, as long as they are connected to the main theme of the paragraph. However, if, when an individual idea begins to stretch into a lengthy discourse, then you should consider putting it into its paragraph.

Components of a paragraph

Every student should understand the four essential elements of paragraph writing and their impact on the final write-up. The fundamentals include unity, order, coherence, and completeness.

Since these features intersect, and do cannot be achieved in isolation, embracing them will help you to build compelling arguments. This paper will focus on paragraph coherence.

Building coherence in paragraphs

Every student should strive to link each sentence to the principal focus or idea. Also known as the topic sentence, the principal ideas should be introduced in the paragraph, before giving way to a swath of evidence to support the claim. Apart from the topic sentence, you can attain coherence by outlining the link between old ideas and new ones. In this way, your essay will be better structured, and your thoughts more sensible to the audience.

How to establish coherence

Coherence in paragraphs can be accomplished in several ways, including:

Repetition of keywords or phrases

This is particularly applicable to essays involving the definition or isolation of an essential theory or concept. In this case, it is prudent that you mention it regularly. Consistent references to these ideas will glue the entire paragraph into a logical piece of argument capable of wowing any audience.

Use of Parallel Structures

Effective use of parallel structures are is a great way to attain clarity and to make your sentences more readable.  It is realized by crafting two or more sentences (or phrases) with similar grammatical structure and parts of speech. Besides, reiterations in successive sentences or phrases emphasize the relationships between concepts.  This is especially useful in scientific essays or research papers where the construction of sentences in a parallel manner is encouraged as a way of aiding the audience to view the paper as an aggregate of instances of a universal declaration.

The constancy of Verb tense, Number, and Point of View

This kind of consistency is an indirect yet significant part of coherence. A paragraph that shuttles from the pronoun “you” to the impersonal form “one,” is incoherent.

he situation may be aggravated by the shift of tenses (past to present, for instance) or from “him” to “them.” these contradictions could also complicate matters for the reader who may not make sense of your analysis.

Application of transition words or phrases

Transitional words serve to emphasize the connections between concepts, to facilitate understanding of the overall trajectory of your paper. It facilitates the discovery of less obvious patterns in the essay.