Part One: Writing - The Paragraph
All paragraphs are made up of three parts:
- Topic Sentence - This is a sentence, usually the first or second one, that describes the main idea and focus of your paragraph. In order to be effective, a topic sentence can’t be too narrow, too broad, incomplete, or an announcement.
- Supporting Sentences - These are the sentences that give support to your topic sentence. They provide reasons and supporting details to expand upon your main idea and back it up with details and facts. In order to be effective, supporting sentences need to be focused, have supporting details, and be clearly related to the main idea.
- Concluding Sentence - The concluding sentence is usually the last sentence of the paragraph. An effective concluding sentence lets the reader know that the topic has been fully developed.
This lesson will focus on writing effective topic sentences. As mentioned above, an effective topic sentence must not be too narrow, too broad, incomplete, or an announcement. Let’s look first at some examples of poor topic sentences.
Poor Topic Sentences
- Divorce is common in my country. This is just a fact. There is no idea here that can be developed further with reasons and support. It’s too narrow to be a topic sentence.
- Divorce is bad. This can be developed with reasons, but it’s too broad. It needs to be focused. How is it bad? For whom?
- Why traditional values are disappearing. Incomplete sentence. While this may be a good topic, it is not a topic sentence because it is grammatically incomplete.
- This paragraph will discuss the impact of divorce on young children. This is an announcement. You don’t need to tell the reader what you are going do; just do it!
A Strong Topic Sentence
Now, here’s an example of an effective topic sentence.
- Divorce has a big impact on children because it can lead to feelings of anxiety and insecurity and behavioural problems at home and school. This topic sentence is focused, but not too narrow; can be developed with reasons and isn’t too broad; it’s a complete, grammatically correct sentence; and isn’t just an announcement.