Paragraphs

In this class we will be looking at using paragraphs in blogs. We will be looking at what a paragraph is, the parts of a good paragraph, and the style, or formatting, of paragraphs in English. After we have looked at these points you will be practicing writing one or more paragraphs for your blog.

What is a paragraph? A paragraph is a group of sentences that have a main idea, which is called the topic. For example, if you have three main ideas that you want to express in a blog post your blog should have three paragraphs. It may also have an introductory paragraph and a conclusion. You should not have completely different or unrelated ideas in the same paragraph. The main point about paragraphs is that they are a way or organizing your writing to make it easier for the person reading your text to understand.

How is a paragraph organized? A paragraph does not have a fixed number of sentences, however it is probably a good idea to write between four and eight sentences in a paragraph. Normally the first sentence is a sentence called the topic sentence. This is probably the most important sentence in your paragraph. It should tell the reader what your paragraph is about. That is its main idea or topic. Paragraphs then have one or more body sentences that support the topic sentence. That means that they either provide evidence to show that the topic sentence is true or provide details to explain what it means. Finally there may be a concluding sentence. However, not all paragraphs have a concluding sentence.

There are two main styles (formats) for writing in paragraphs. The first style is called indented. It is mainly used in books and newspaper and magazine articles and often in personal letters. With this style they may not be a space between the paragraphs, but each new paragraph begins on a new line and is indented. That means that a small space is left at the beginning of the line of a new paragraph, either using the tab key or three to five spaces with the space bar. The other format is called block, and is used for business letters, but it is also a lot more commonly used on blogs and on web sites. In block format the first line of a paragraph is not indented, but it starts on a new line and usually one or two line spaces (use the return key) are inserted between paragraphs. Please write in paragraphs using one of these styles. Don’t start a new line by pressing return, unless you want to start a new paragraph.