Structuring your paragraphs

Now that your research has been divided, first into chapters and then into sections, we will zoom in on these sections. Each section has a single purpose, and will contain a body of text. This body of text would be very hard to read if all sentences follow one another immediately. Instead, it is structured into paragraphs.

Each paragraph communicates a single idea to the reader. Generally, this idea is covered in one topic sentence, which captures the main point of the paragraph. The rest of the paragraph expands on this point, and explains or supports the topic sentence. Often, the topic sentence occurs as one of the first sentences of a paragraph, but it may appear at other positions as well.

When going over your own paragraphs, ask yourself the following questions:

• Does this paragraph have a single topic?
• Is this paragraph coherent? Do the sentences logically follow each other?
• Does this paragraph make its point completely and concisely?