The vast majority of your paragraphs, however, should have a topic sentence. Most paragraphs in an essay have a three-part structure—introduction, body, and conclusion. You can see this structure in paragraphs whether they are narrating, describing, comparing, contrasting, or analyzing information. Each part of the paragraph plays an important role in communicating your meaning to your reader. Introduction : the first section of a paragraph; should include the topic sentence and any other sentences at the beginning of the paragraph that give background information or provide a transition.
Body : follows the introduction; discusses the controlling idea, using facts, arguments, analysis, examples, and other information.
The following paragraph illustrates this pattern of organization. In front of the tiny pupil of the eye they put , on Mount Palomar, a great monocle inches in diameter, and with it see times farther into the depths of space. Or , if we want to see distant happenings on earth, they use some of the previously wasted electromagnetic waves to carry television images which they re-create as light by whipping tiny crystals on a screen with electrons in a vacuum.
Or they can bring happenings of long ago and far away as colored motion pictures, by arranging silver atoms and color-absorbing molecules to force light waves into the patterns of original reality. Or if we want to see into the center of a steel casting or the chest of an injured child, they send the information on a beam of penetrating short-wave X rays, and then convert it back into images we can see on a screen or photograph. In a coherent paragraph, each sentence relates clearly to the topic sentence or controlling idea, but there is more to coherence than this.
If a paragraph is coherent, each sentence flows smoothly into the next without obvious shifts or jumps. A coherent paragraph also highlights the ties between old information and new information to make the structure of ideas or arguments clear to the reader. If you have written a very long paragraph, one that fills a double-spaced typed page, for example, you should check it carefully to see if it should start a new paragraph where the original paragraph wanders from its controlling idea.
On the other hand, if a paragraph is very short only one or two sentences, perhaps , you may need to develop its controlling idea more thoroughly, or combine it with another paragraph.
Topic sentences don't always appear at the beginning of a paragraph. When they come in the middle, they indicate that the paragraph will change direction, or "pivot. Hymer herself concedes. The pivot always needs a signal, a word like "but," "yet," or "however," or a longer phrase or sentence that indicates an about-face.
It often needs more than one sentence to make its point. Signposts operate as topic sentences for whole sections in an essay. In longer essays, sections often contain more than a single paragraph. They inform a reader that the essay is taking a turn in its argument: delving into a related topic such as a counter-argument, stepping up its claims with a complication, or pausing to give essential historical or scholarly background.
Because they reveal the architecture of the essay itself, signposts remind readers of what the essay's stakes are: what it's about, and why it's being written.
Signposting can be accomplished in a sentence or two at the beginning of a paragraph or in whole paragraphs that serve as transitions between one part of the argument and the next. The following example comes from an essay examining how a painting by Monet, The Gare Saint-Lazare: Arrival of a Train, challenges Zola's declarations about Impressionist art.
The student writer wonders whether Monet's Impressionism is really as devoted to avoiding "ideas" in favor of direct sense impressions as Zola's claims would seem to suggest. This is the start of the essay's third section:. It is evident in this painting that Monet found his Gare Saint-Lazare motif fascinating at the most fundamental level of the play of light as well as the loftiest level of social relevance.
Arrival of a Train explores both extremes of expression. At the fundamental extreme, Monet satisfies the Impressionist objective of capturing the full-spectrum effects of light on a scene.
The writer signposts this section in the first sentence, reminding readers of the stakes of the essay itself with the simultaneous references to sense impression "play of light" and intellectual content "social relevance". The second sentence follows up on this idea, while the third serves as a topic sentence for the paragraph. A topic sentence is the opening sentence to a paragraph that gives the general idea topic of what the writing will be about.
It needs to give broad enough information to allow for multiple subtopics and examples without being so general that it makes the purpose of the writing unclear. Topic sentences help guide the reader by introducing the subject of the rest of the paragraph. They relate to the main idea of the entire piece of writing and present the specific topic that is the focus of a paragraph. Topic sentences provide structure to a paragraph and piece of writing as a whole.
Related: How to Write an Intro Paragraph. A thesis statement is the sentence that states the repeated focus for an entire piece of writing. The thesis statement of an essay is usually written after a hook and or topic sentence of the introductory paragraph to make a point that will be supported by examples throughout the entire essay. A topic sentence, however, can be used to back up the thesis by introducing the topic of each supporting paragraph.
If you were composing an essay using these examples, you would create multiple paragraphs to explain what compounds are in tea and why they are good for your health.
The topic sentence for each paragraph would introduce a topic like "cancer-fighting compounds in green tea" or "how tea lowers cholesterol. Follow these ideas to create a topic sentence for multiple paragraphs:. Think about the overall topic for your writing. Decide how you can introduce this idea to your readers with an interesting opening sentence. Write a clear topic sentence by describing the what and the why of an idea that relates to your main point.
State what the topic is and why it matters. Here is an example of using the what and why structure with the previous topic of tea. Compose an opening sentence to your piece of writing that introduces the main point for the entire work using the what and why structure.
Place this sentence before your thesis statement to act as an introduction to both the thesis and main idea of the entire piece of writing. Write a sentence that begins each supporting paragraph by introducing the new topic for that section and connects readers back to the main idea of your piece of writing.
Continue to use the what and why structure as you create new topic sentences for each paragraph. Here are some helpful ideas for creating and using topic sentences in your writing:. Create a topic sentence that gives readers something interesting to think about instead of an obvious statement something everybody knows. When you create a topic sentence, present the information in a new way that is not just a fact statement.
Compound and complex sentences make topic sentences sound stronger and more high-level.
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