Improving Paragraphs for Academic Writing

1. Improving Paragraphs for Academic Writing UAB University Writing Center

2. Basic Features of Strong Paragraphs • Clarity – the focus of the paragraph is clear, not ambiguous; content is unified • Concise – each sentence in the paragraph has purpose and power; no unnecessary repetition • Coherent – the paragraph is clearly connected to the rest of the essay and to the thesis • Emphasis – the paragraph is situated within the essay in a way that clearly indicates its degree of importance within the essay • Engaging – the paragraph keeps the reader interested in the content

3. Topic Sentences – the paragraph mini-thesis • Importance: • Establishes unity • Key to coherence • Must be clear • Function – • Explicitly states the focus of the paragraph: the specific subpoint extension of the main thesis to be developed in the paragraph • Placement – • Often the first sentence of the paragraph • May follow a transitional sentence • Occasionally delayed until end of paragraph

4. Developing Body Paragraphs • One Basic Format: • Topic sentence that states focus/mini-claim or states a synthesized concept • Sentence that expands or explains focus/mini-claim/synthesis • Sentences that support the explanation/mini-claim/synthesis (cited research) • Commentary on the cited research • Wrap-up sentence that connects research to overall focus of essay or next paragraph

5. Strategies to Improve Overall Coherence • Repeat key terms or phrases • Reinforce key concepts by using synonyms • Use words that express the relationships between paragraphs and among sentences within the paragraphs • Ex. Additionally, researchers have found that the production of biofuels may actually improve soil quality, rather than deplete it. • Ex. However, opponents of biofuels argue that grain-based biofuels may be detrimental to under-developed countries who rely on grains to offset food supplies.

6. Improve Coherence through Parallelism • Parallelism: Related ideas or ideas joined in a list should be presented in the same grammatical structure (i.e. nouns, phrases, clauses) • Not parallel: The study participants were asked about how much weight they had gained recently, exercising habits, current health status and history, and if they had seen a medical doctor recently. • Parallel: The study participants were questioned about current weight fluctuations, exercise habits, health status, health history, and recent doctor visits.

7. Improve Engagement through Variety • Purposefully, vary sentence length within a paragraph. For example, contrasting several long sentences with a short sentence creates emphasis and draws attention to the point made. • Underline the sentence openers. Vary occasionally. • Vary the sentence patterns used within the paragraph: simple, compound, complex, compound-complex.

8. Basic Sentence Patterns • Simple – one subject and one verb. Over-used produces choppy and often bland style. Very straightforward; often preferred in medical writing • Compound – two simple sentences combined by a conjunction (i.e. and, but, therefore) or a semicolon. • Complex – a simple sentence combined with one or more dependent clauses; preferred in humanities • Compound-complex – two or more joined simple sentences combined with one or more dependent clauses; frequently used in academic writing

9. Creating Emphasis through Paragraph Order • Some paragraph order is constrained by the discipline/genre, i.e. sciences, social sciences • In other disciplines, writers are generally expected to create a logical framework that readers can follow: • General to specific (deductive reasoning) • Specific to general (inductive reasoning) • Old information to new information • Least important to most important (or vice versa) • Chronological sequences • Cause/Effect • Warrant, Reason, Claim