Maybe the topic of a persuasive speech is organic produce, while the focus of the speech is about the importance of supporting local organic farms. The topic of a chapter from a medical text might be phlebotomy (the practice of drawing blood from a patient), while the focus of a section of that chapter might be about safe disposal of used needles. The topic of a news story might be a deadly forest fire that’s burning out of control, while the focus of the topic might be about careless humans. Think about some places where you might commonly find general topics presented with more focus, perhaps in news stories, textbooks, or speeches. The following diagram illustrates how a topic sentence can provide more focus to the general topic at hand. This more focused idea, your topic sentence, helps you determine the parts of the topic that you want to illuminate for your readers-whether that’s a college essay or a thank you letter to your Aunt Martha. It provides a way through a topic that is likely much broader than what you could ever cover in a paragraph, or even in an essay. The topic sentence takes control of the more general topic of the paragraph and shapes it in the way that you choose to present it to your readers. The job of the topic sentence is to control the development and flow of the information contained in the paragraph. Similarly, the main idea of a paragraph in a letter serves the overall purpose of the letter, whether that purpose is to thank your Aunt Martha for the thoughtful birthday sweater, or whether the purpose is to inform a local business that you’re dissatisfied with the quality of a product or service that you purchased. (For more on thesis statements, see “Finding the Thesis” earlier in this “Drafting” section of this text.) Paragraphs rarely stand alone, so most often the main topic of the paragraph serves the main concept or purpose of a larger whole for example, the main idea of a paragraph in an essay should serve to develop and support the thesis of the essay.
There’s no prescribed length or number of sentences. A paragraph is a group of sentences that present, develop, and support a single idea. Let’s begin by defining this concept of the paragraph.
(For more on methods of development, see “ Patterns of Organization and Methods of Development,” later in this “Drafting” section of this text.). How do you start a paragraph? How can you help your reader understand the main idea? How do you know when you’ve included enough details? How do you conclude? You might also wonder when you need to break a paragraph and start a new one or how help your reader transition from one idea to the next.
VERBAL SIGNPOST HOW TO
How to develop and organize paragraphs is a problem that plagues many beginning college writers.