Building a paragraph
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| supporting sentences | 支撑句 | zhī chēng jù |
| concluding sentence | 结尾句 | jié wěi jù |
| cohesion | 衔接 | xián jiē |
| unity | 统一性 | tǒng yī xìng |
One idea per paragraph. Always
- A paragraph is not a length. It is one idea, developed until it is finished.
- Two ideas in one paragraph is two paragraphs badly joined, and a marker sees it immediately.
- If you need two topic sentences, you have two paragraphs.
The parts of a paragraph
- The topic sentence states the single idea.
- Supporting sentences 支撑句 develop it: explanation, evidence, or an example.
- A concluding sentence 结尾句 closes the idea, or turns it towards the next paragraph.
Put the sentences of a well-built paragraph in order.
Claim, evidence, evidence, consequence. The claim comes first so the evidence has something to support.
Public transport in the city has improved sharply. (topic)
The new metro line opened in 2021 and now carries 400,000 people a day. (evidence)
Bus routes were redrawn to feed the stations rather than to compete with them. (evidence)
As a result, the average commute is eleven minutes shorter than it was. (conclusion)
Four sentences, one idea, each doing a different job. Nothing here could move to another paragraph.
Write a topic sentence for a paragraph about how your school timetable affects study.
Example: "The gap between afternoon lessons is where most of my real study happens." That is a claim evidence can support.
Cohesion and unity
- Cohesion 衔接 is what makes sentences feel joined: pronouns pointing back, repeated key nouns, connectives that fit.
- Unity 统一性 means every sentence serves the topic sentence.
- A sentence that serves a different idea belongs in another paragraph — or nowhere.
A paragraph about metro improvements contains a sentence about the city's food markets. What should you do?
Unity means every sentence serves the topic sentence. A connective cannot rescue an unrelated idea.
If you can still tell what a paragraph is about after deleting its topic sentence, the paragraph is well built.
It means the topic sentence was doing no work. A real topic sentence states something the rest only supports.
Test a paragraph by deleting its topic sentence. If you can still tell what the paragraph is about from the rest, the topic sentence was doing no work and the paragraph has no single idea.
Which is the better paragraph opening in an academic report?
It states your claim. The citation then supports it, and "In this paragraph I will" wastes a sentence.
Do not begin a paragraph with a citation or a statistic. According to Zhang (2019), 62% of… starts the reader with someone else's idea rather than yours. Put your claim first; the evidence supports it, not the reverse.