University of Auckland

How to Write a Good Paragraph

"The paragraph [is] a mini-essay: it is also a maxi-sentence." Donald Hall

Aim: To provide a template for paragraph writing

1. Topic Sentences

a.     Perhaps the most mystifying of the habits peculiar to whales is their "singing".
b.     A number of curious experiences occur at the onset of sleep.
c.     Much of eye behaviour is so subtle that we react to it only on the intuitive level. d.     Certainly, political problems, difficult and delicate though they may be, are not unsolvable.

Topic sentences taken from paragraphs from The Harbrace College Handbook. 12^th rev edition.

2. Position of Topic Sentences

a. All the while, in other parts of the world, the terrors of the second World War were being foreshadowed by a series of ominous and bloody events. In the north of Spain, a revolt of the Austrian miners was being ruthlessly suppressed through the importation of Moorish troops from Africa. Hitler was carrying out his "blood purge" against a cadre of former associates. Dollfuss after slaughtering the socialist working class of Vienna, in February, was himself murdered by the Nazis in July. In October, King Alexander of Yugoslavia and Foreign Minister Barthou of France were assassinated by Croatian terrorists in the pay of Mussolini, and in July, Kirov, a close associate of Stalin, met a similar fate in the street of Leningrad. Meanwhile, in the Chaco jungles, far to the south, the unpublicized but sanguinary war between Bolivia and Paraguay was dragging on without headlines and seemingly without end.

b. In the warmth of the Solar system a comet releases clouds of vapour and dust that form the growing head and then leak into the tail, which is the cosmic equivalent of an oil slick. Pieces of dust later hit the Earth, as meteors. A few survivors among the comets evolve into menacing lumps of dirt in tight orbits around the Sun, For these reasons comets, are, in my opinion, best regarded as a conspicuous form of sky pollution. - Nigel Calder “The Comet is Coming” (HCH, 12th rev. edition p. 311)

c. The conventional gasoline engine functions by drawing a vaporised mixture of gasoline and air into itself, compressing the mixture, igniting it and using the resulting explosion to push a piston down a cylinder. In the cycle of the diesel, only air is drawn in; the air is then very highly compressed so that it heats up naturally. In the next stage a very accurately time and measured quantity of fuel is injected into the cylinder, and because of the heat of the air, the mixture explodes spontaneously, which is why the diesel is sometimes referred to as a compression-ignition engine.

3. Supporting Sentences

a. Another human desire advertising writers did not invent (although they liberally exploit it) is to associate with successful people. All of us tend to admire people who are widely known for their achievements. We are therefore already primed for the common advertising devise of a testimonial or personality ad. Once we have seen a famous person in an advertisement, we associate the product with the person "I like Mr. X, Mr X likes (endorses) this product. I like this product, too." This logic is faulty, but we fall for it just the same. That is how Joe DiMaggio sells Mr. Coffee. Although cartoon characters are not admired per se, they too are easily recognised; that's why Pac-Man sells vitamins and Bugs Bunny sells Post Raisin Bran, The people who write testimonial ads did not create our trust in famous personalities. They merely recognise our inclinations and exploit them.
- Charles A. O'Neill "The Language or Advertising" (Harbrace College Handbook 12th rev ed p318)

b. When we watch a person walk away from us, his image shrinks in size. But since we know for a fact that he is not shrinking, we make an unconscious correcting to "see" him as retaining his full stature. Past experience tells us what his true stature is with respect to our own. Any sane and dependable expectation of the future requires that he has the same stature when we next encounter him. Our perception is thus a prediction; it embraces the past and the future as well as

- Warren J Wittreich "Visual Perception and Personality" (Harbrace College Handbook 12th rev ed p318)

c Several movements characterise easy victims; their strides were either very long or very short;

they moved awkwardly; raising their left legs with their left arms (instead of alternating them); on each step, they tended to lift their whole foot up and then place it down (less muggable sorts took steps in which their feet rocked from heel to toe). Overall, the people rated most muggable walked as if they were in conflict with themselves; they seemed to make each move in the most difficult way possible.

- Carin Rubenstein "Body Language That Speaks to Muggers" (HCH, 12^th rev. ed. pg. 322).

Checklist:

1. Do you have a good topic sentence?

a. one main idea, limiting content to a particular area

b. in the right place

c. tells the reader what the paragraph is about

2. Do all your sentences support your topic sentence?

3. Do you have enough evidence in your paragraph to support your topic sentence?

4. Are your supporting sentences in the right order?

5. Is there a logical link between your topic and supporting sentences?

6. Is your paragraph interesting? (content, style, variety, vocabulary)

Faculty of Arts