First, let’s review the basic structure of a 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 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. Its job is to let the reader know that the topic has been fully developed.
In this lesson, we’ll focus on Supporting Sentences.
What is a supporting sentence?
The supporting sentences of a paragraph develop the main idea presented in the topic sentence. This development can come in the form of examples, reasons, description, etc., depending on the purpose of your paragraph. If, for example, you are writing an opinion-based paragraph, your supporting sentences will consist of reasons and details. If, on the other hand, you are writing a description, your supporting sentences will contain specific details to help the reader form a mental image.
For example, let’s look at some supporting sentences for this topic sentence.
The voting age in my country should be lowered from 18 to 16.
A Strong Supporting Sentence
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