What are the elements of a paragraph?

Question

The elements of a paragraph may not be the same for creative writing versus nonfiction writing. In addition, the components of a paragraph may differ depending on the field or disciple in which you are writing. However, within the social sciences, or within standard essay writing, an academic paragraph is made up of four elements: topic sentence, evidence or examples, analysis, and transition or summary sentence.

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Dr. M.

Answer 1

Paragraphs in general are very topically oriented. Anytime you move from one topic to another within the context of a piece of writing, a new paragraph must be created.

The same holds true for dialogue in literary works. A new character speaking calls for a new paragraph to be written. Paragraphs like those containing character dialogue are sometimes very short in length. Even introductory and concluding paragraphs in an essay or research paper can be of slimmer lengths if the points they are trying to raise or finish are more succinct in nature, and such paragraphs themselves each merely serve as a means of beginning or ending the piece of writing at hand on a solid, straightforward point.

Answer 2

Each paragraph is your opportunity to develop a sub-claim, a new point for your thesis, and/or a counterargument. It's important to make sure that you give extensive, all-encompassing answers to the prompt.

Answer 3

The main components of a typical paragraph should include a topic sentence, supporting sentences (ie examples to help demonstrate and/or illustrate your topic sentence along with a concluding sentence.