Paragraph Structure

Overview

The purpose of this lesson is identify the structure of a paragraph and be able to define its parts.

A paragraph should have three parts.

The first part is the topic sentence. The topic sentence states the paragraph’s topic and controlling idea. It is usually the first sentence in a paragraph. The topic sentence is broad enough to cover all of the rest of the information included in the paragraph and helps to give unity and structure to the paragraph. In other words, it helps the reader to understand what the paragraph is about.
After the topic sentence come the supporting details. The supporting details in a paragraph help to explain or prove the topic sentence. They provide specific information about the topic of the paragraph and sometimes give examples to illustrate the claim made in the topic sentence. Depending on how long a paragraph is meant to be, it may require two to three supporting details, and these supporting details need to be clearly linked to the topic sentence.
Finally, a paragraph often will end with a concluding sentence. This sentence should paraphrase the information in the topic sentence and should not include any supporting details. A good paragraph should always include all three of these elements.