How to Write Great Paragraphs

1. Course Overview: how to write a great paragraph is a short course that gives you the basics on writing a coherent paragraph their readers will enjoy. I just want to provide you with an overview of the course. First of all, we're gonna talk about the purpose of the paragraph. It is not simply to block off a piece of text that actually has to have a meaningful purpose. We'll look at some problem paragraphs. I've been teaching writing at universities for 14 years now, and I've got some examples of paragraphs that really are not functioning properly. And we'll look at those opposite Lee. I'm gonna talk about what makes a coherent paragraph, and I'll give you some specific examples about how you can increase coherence in your paragraphs. And then we'll turn to direct quotations. A big problem in the paragraph. Writing that I see is misuse of direct quotations and explain what I mean in that lecture video. So what are my expectations for you? Well, I expect that you'll watch all the videos. It's really important to go through the short course and watch all the videos first before you then go on and do the project. I want you to try this out. You need to internalize the lesson. Just watching these videos isn't going to make you a good writer of paragraphs. You need to actually try it out. And in our projects section student projects section of the scores you can paste in to Paris that your you've written and I will review them and tell you if I feel they're coherent and focused. If you have any questions about the course, you can ask me those questions in the forms, and I will answer as soon as I can, so let's get started. 2. Just What Is a Paragraph?: just what is a paragraph? This video is going to talk about what a paragraph is, what its purposes. The course also talks about some of the problems that come up with paragraphs. I think this is understudy. We tend to focus in writing on the sentence and the words were choosing, and there are probably courses out there, the talk about argumentation and greater structure. But that middle ground element of writing the paragraph deserves attention, too. It is a unit of focused thought, and I'll show you some of the problems that come up with paragraphs and also how to be more focused than have more coherence. It's like metaphorical terms. The bricks of the house holds everything together, then, actually, on the page, it kind of looks like a brick as well. Now it separates the text both visually. So provides that break on the page that is easier on her eyes and also meaningful E. And I think most people tend to, uh, create paragraphs visually, not meaningful E. So when they do that indentation at the start of a paragraph, that's how they indicate a new pair of his beginning. Of course, that's how you indicate a new pair of his beginning. But the paragraph itself has to meaningfully have focus, and we'll talk about that as we go along. But on that point about the visual break, that's most obvious indication of a paragraph that indentation now. Sometimes you might not have an in dent. You might just have a full lying space between paragraphs, and most people put it in dense in there, and that makes it easier to read. So visually, we like to have that indication there. It helps us. Ah gives us a sign post of where the new element of thought begins. So I have an easier time moving through the document when we have those sign posts here. I've just blocked out some actual paragraphs that were in a document that I have three paragraphs. I mean, just visually see that break, and that's helpful for us as we read through a document, but also beyond just that practical notion of the division. It is it should be, and it is a unit of thought so that indentation airlines space creates the new pair of and also signals to the reader that were coming up with some new thought, Hopefully that's happening in the paragraph, but doesn't always happen with people's writing that any new thoughts begin. Sometimes they're still on the same thought they were dealing with in the last pair. I've so think of. The paragraph is a unit of thought as well, not just graphically, you know, the dividing of the indentations creating that visual differentiation now typically paragraphs air in the body of a document, so their standards support paragraphs. That's probably the most of the kind. You right, but you will also right introductory paragraphs that introduced the topic. I'll talk a bit about some of those later and conclusion paragraphs that tie things together. 3. Ideal Paragraph Length: I often get asked what the ideal paragraph length is, how maney sentences should I put into my paragraphs? Well, there's no single number. I can't say that it's 123 or four or 10 whatever through ranges, I think three sentences to seven sentences is good for most types of writing. If you have more than eight or eight plus, it could be a sign of unfocused writings. Often I'll see in student writing essays, you know, school papers, paragraphs to go on for two or three pages, where I do not see a break at all in those paragraph that is obviously too long. I mean, some of those paragraphs could be 2025 sentences. That usually is a sign of unfocused. Writing is very rare that somebody could write 20 sentences in one paragraph where every single sentence is there for a reason. Usually, what happens is with with long, Paris's people have just done a copy and paste paper. You have kind of grab things from a lot of different sources to run it all in your created , a kind of grab bag paragraph that has a 1,000,000 different things in a 1,000,000 different points. Ah, and they haven't thought about being focused. So keep it between 33 to 7. I think is a good number. Of course, it depends on what you're talking about. Well, type of core coherence later in this course. So if it's very coherent, that helps to. But there's a real effect of long paragraphs on readers is very tiring for the reader, and I put on the screen here Ah, black dope paragraph that I saw in an actual essay. So that's in an 8.5 by 11 sheet of paper condensed down, and I blacked it, although just so you can see visually what a long paragraph looks like and really to a reader, I mean, they don't see a big black blob, but it is tiring. It's big. It's like trying to climb a big mountain to get through it. So that's the effect you could have on a reader. If you have those extremely long paragraphs now, the opposite, I guess, would be the one sentence paragraph that is very rare. There are very few situations, but it's often using journalism. If you're thinking of getting into journalism, you love to write one sentence. Paris. But I would caution against that. Here's an example of a typical column in the newspaper from a news story. Three men were taken into custody after a robbery at the trust bank today. Police officers responded after a 911 call from a customer who saw the man brandish guns. David Smith, 19 Original Press 20 and John Taylor, 19 will face charges in court on Monday. So you pick out any newspaper these days, you'll see that kind of thing. And to me it's more of a design issue that newspapers want. Vory breezy, easy to read paragraphs so they go down to one sentence. But in almost all other kinds of writing, maybe except comic books, you would never have one sentence paragraphs. In technical communication, you might have a shorter pere if of 2 to 3 sentences. Now, that means that the reader can better digest information if it comes in smaller units. So in any kind of technical communication, you might want to do that difficult stuff, difficult topics. Sometimes it's best to avoid those long paragraphs or even the meeting the moderate paragraph of 3 to 7 in very heavy technical sorts of writing. Just be careful if you go with really short paragraphs in my work as a university professor , I've noticed that often paragraphs that are really sure are short, not out of intention. They're short because the writer didn't properly develop their thoughts, so they had nothing to say. Really. So they just throw in one line or two lines. Let's make sure that you have developed the paragraph enough. Just don't be lazy. Don't try to whip off a one sentence paragraph just cause you have nothing else to say on that subject. 4. The Topic Sentence Gets it Started: to get off to a good start with your paragraphs, you need a really strong topic sentence. So that's the point or main idea of the paragraph, and it's put in the first sentence, and we only wanna have one main idea per pair or, if you don't want to do too much thes air, just like little bricks of a host. These were not the whole house. A topic sentence would go something like chemical pesticides and herbicides are ineffective . Now that would signal to us that the rest of the paragraph, all the other sentences that are gonna come, are going to be about the efficacy of chemical pesticides and herbicides. Now that doesn't always happen. So a lot of people have Paris for the topic. Sentence says one thing, and then the other sentences in the paragraph go on to a whole bunch of other topics. So just be careful that you are ensuring that everything else is focused on that. We'll talk about that in another video. Here's a structural example. So this is a meaningless paragraph. I've just put this out there just to show you that it works this way. So you first sentence the topics ends. This sentence explains the topic of this paragraph period. And then on that second sentence, the sentence makes a connected point about the topic, and then the next one. The sentence makes another connected point about the topic, and then, finally, the sentence makes 1/3 connected point about the topic. So connected is key that all those points come together to defend the topic sentence that got it all started. You can look at it also as a template. So if you want to do a paragraph template, you could say something like a sentence that introduces the topic or main idea goes here. And then you'd add two more sentences that specifically support or explain that topic sentence of those go in the middle of it. And then, finally, a sends. That concludes your explanation of the topic and that actually can sometimes provide a transition that takes us to the next pair of that's when you've got riel. Flow between paragraphs is when the last sentence of one is leading to the first sentence of the neck, so that's just a template. If you're trying to think about it structurally, Ah, two final points about paragraphs. Now I've said here in this video that the topic sentences the first sentence of the Pera. I want to keep it simple. I want to keep it focused 99% of the time. It is the first sense, but some writers, and you'll see this in textbooks there, some textbooks to talk about this. I will say that the topic sentence can go anywhere in the paragraph. It could be the second, the third, the fourth, the 5th 6th sentence. That's true. I mean, if you're a master writer, I'm sure you can put it anywhere, and it will be so perfect in that situation. But you got Remember the reader. And if the first sentence is not, the topic sends, the reader has the hunt around for that point. You know the topic, and you don't really want to make your readers hunt for information. You don't want to maketh, um, jump around looking forward. It's not a mystery novel that you're writing here. You're putting together clear paragraphs, and a reader can sometimes become confused if you don't give it away in the first sentence . Also, if you find yourself writing about something unrelated to the topic sentence. So maybe your third sentence in the paragraph is totally unrelated to the first sentence. You don't have to throw it away. You don't have to discard it. You can actually use that to start a new pair of. Sometimes you're trying to do too much. You're trying to talk about too many things in one paragraph when you could extract that extra sentence and maybe it would spark a totally new paragraph. So keep that in mind that you have to throw things away. Just reuse it as the start of a new paragraph. 5. Don't Be Overly Broad: The next piece of advice is to don't the next piece of the next piece of advice is, Don't be overly broad with your paragraphs. Paragraphs again are just little units of communication, essays and reports there, the larger units of communication. But sometimes I think people forget, and they almost think of paragraphs like many essays or many reports, and that creates this broad pere raft problem. Here's an example of a paragraph that is just way too broad. It's trying to do too many things, and I'll read it out. Businesses can have many ups and downs over the years. Donations may drop or costs may go up. Charities have many sources of revenue, but also many costs. It's easier to cut costs than to find new revenue in this section. We will look at the sources of revenue for this charity. Then we will look at the costs. So the first sentence, I mean that is so broad. And if I said you businesses can have many ups and downs over the years, I mean this whatever this document is that I'm writing could be about just about anything to do with businesses. You want to zoom in a little bit closer to your subject matter in that topic sentence and then it talks about donations. May drop or costs may go up. So is this gonna be about donations? Is gonna be about costs. I mean, you could do whole sections of this report on either one. Now it talks about revenue and costs. So which is it which we focusing on? So it dense talks about looking at the sources of revenue for the charity and then looking at the costs. Too many things going on here, and you don't want a pair if that becomes about everything. Now, here, opposite Lee is a specific and focused paragraph on the same subject charities. But let's look at how it really focuses the subject and zooms in. Charities have recently faced increasing scrutiny for wages paid to their C E O's. Some charities only give 5% to 10% of their donations to those in need. CEOs of some charities take massive salaries. In the next section, we will examine the ways governments are encouraging charities to give more of their donations to those in need. So, Seo, everything in this paragraph is about that topic sentence. The topic sentences about that increasing scrutiny. But wages they're being paid to their CEOs with second sentence is about how much donations actually go to those in need, so the rest is obviously going to wages or most of its going to wages. Ah, CEO salaries is the topic of sentence number three and then in sentence number four, which is kind of transitioning to the next part. It is again about encouraging charities to give more off their donations to those in need instead of to their CEOs. That's a very tight paragraph. It as coherence. Everything there is there for that topic sentence. 6. Paragraph Coherence: so far in this course, I've hinted at this. But paragraph coherence is really the key to writing great paragraphs. That means that each point relates to the next one. Now, as I said earlier, block of text can look like a pair of, but still not have coherence meaningful. By that, I mean, it could have an indentation. It could be separate from other blocks of text on the page. But that's not enough. That doesn't necessarily mean that it has the coherence, the connection between points. A coherent paragraph means it's sentences connect like links in a chain if we think in visual metaphor of a chain that all those paragraphs linked together. So in this video, I'm gonna talk about how you can do that. First of all, we can write about things in a chronological structure or a logical order. Chronological would mean something like this. So let's say we're writing about World War Two. We could say the end of World War Two in 1945 was the catalyst for a number of developments . Ah, baby boom took place, which led to the generation called the Boomers. In the 19 fifties. Economies like the us grew bigger as families expanded. The 19 seventies saw increasing industrialization and economic expansion. So here we're going in chronological order. So we go from 1945 to the 19 fifties to the 19 sixties that gives us a sense of where we're going. In the paragraph to the reader, it's very clear that it's a time based paragraph. We could also do something logically, we could do something. For example, if you're explaining how to put something together, Emanuel, you could write. Take the parts out of the bag, put the top board on the floor, attached the legs to the top ward with screws once the legs air attached turned the desk upright. And I got that example just from my own experience recently of putting together a desk that I ordered online. Ah, and it was very easy to put together. The instructions were great. Very simple, logical instructions, you know, do this, then do that. Then do that. And that's another way you can order a paragraph so that the reader finds it very easy to follow in. Every part of it connects to the next. You can also create coherence in your paragraphs with transitions. So we often have different ideas and different sentences, and also between the sentences. We want a link, those ideas together, and in many ways we can do that, and I'm gonna give you a few here. The 1st 1 is to use a word in one sentence in the other sense is nice when we use someone's name in one sentence, and then we use that exact name again in the second sentence that actually links the two sentences together. Mentally, you know, in the mind of the reader, another waken transition is to use transitional phrases like also as well. In addition, that's if you want to same or on the subject. Another way is if you want to illustrate a point you could say, for example, or for instance, that's really good. If you're talking about very abstract topics and great writing provides examples for any kind of abstract point, so you make an abstract point. Then you illustrated with a riel life case. Study number four is if you want a contrast, the point you can write, although or conversely, or however so that's signaling to the reader that you are changing your tack here you're moving in a different direction. If you want a link points in a time sequence, you can also do it this way. You can say something like at this point or during or meanwhile. Or first you see that a lot in writing, you say First we need to do this and the next 2nd 2nd next sentence is second. We need to do this. Third, we need to do that. It used to be written sometimes firstly, secondly, thirdly, but I feel like that L Y ah version of those those numbers has been declining of it. And so people say 1st 2nd and third. And then, finally, another transition you can use. If you want to connect to similar points between sentences, you could write in the same way or similarly. So there's some little transitional words that create that coherence in a paragraph. Now let's look at an example of a paragraph that lacks coherence. I'm not going to read this out because it's very long, pere. If, but I suggest that you pause the video right now, read this over and then press play again, and then I will explain what's wrong with this paragraph. So here we have so many things going on, and you probably noticed if you pause, then you read it that there are actually a lot of topic sentences in this. There are things like solar power is efficient. Solar power is safe. Solar heat collectors air economical, those air all their own topic senses. But they're all mushed together in this massive pair of of the number of different points that it becomes a real grab bag. And actually, I think this is like on outline of an essay. This is an outline of a whole larger document. So the writer here would have to extract those topic sentences, make them their own paragraphs Ah, and then expand on them and ADM or detail. And that's one way we could get away from having this massive paragraph with so many different things going on. Remember, a paragraph is not an essay opposite Lee. Here is a strong coherence example. It's shorter, so I'm going to read it out. One main factor in the flooding of New Orleans was the hurricanes violent power. The hurricane was a Category five storm which can produce winds above 200 kilometers an hour. Powerful winds can create a storm surge that overcomes levies. New Orleans had not seen a storm that strong in almost a century. So let's break this apart. If you look at the topic sentence the first sentence of this paragraph. You see one main factor in the flooding of New Orleans was the hurricanes. Violent powers of power is the key word here that this sentence as a reader when we read this this sentence has to be about power to make sense to us. The Hurricanes power. So what is the second sentence all about? Well, it's about Category five. We know in the study of hurricanes that they're ranked by their power Corning a category 12345 And that a Category five storm, very powerful storm has 200 kilometre an hour winds orm or that's all about power. Then the next sentence actually says powerful winds. So we know we're still on topic here. Ah, and the the effect of those winds is to create a storm surge in that overcomes levies us again, all about power. And then, finally, New Orleans had not seen a storm that strong in almost a century, so strength relates to power. So 1234 That's a nice length for sentences, and they're all about the topic sentence that is a really strong sentence or a paragraph that has lots of coherence here. 7. Using Quotations Properly In Paragraphs: one area that's often done really badly and paragraphs is the use of direct quotations. I want to talk about using quotations properly in your paragraphs, so direct quotations or simply words of others placed in quote marks and sourced. The only reason you ever direct quote somebody is because it's a great quote. So just keep that in mind. You have to be a great quote, and I'll show you what that looks like. For example, here's a direct quote from Martin Luther King. So he's a paragraph. There's a citation of the end of it, and it goes like this. In his classic speech, Martin Luther King said, Let freedom ring from every hill, a mole hill of Mississippi from every mountainside Let freedom ring. That's a great quote. We want to hear his words directly from him. So that's why we would use this format of the direct quote. We could paraphrase it. So if I didn't want to put that quote in, I wanted shorter. I could write something like Martin Luther King talked about freedom in his speech. Yeah, he did talk about freedom, but he did it in such a wonderful way that we want a direct quote that this is boring, right? To paraphrase a wonderful quote like that. So don't don't play down great quotes when you got one. You want to use it. Remember, direct quotes must be interested. Keep that Martin Luther King quote in mind. Here's another one Spencer Father Ringtone noted in his report that quote taxes went up 15% over that period. This is a very boring quote. Taxes went up 15% over that period. That's not unique. That's just boring. You don't need to quote that. Just paraphrase it. You could write. Spencer Father intend to report noted a 15% increase in taxes in the period. So meeting up boring factual information like that just put it in your own words. There's no reason to quote it. Another big issue that comes up in paragraphs is integrating quotations. Many writers just drop quotations into a paragraph and let the reader figure it out, so to speak. So here is a longer one will read this out. When politicians of the late 18 hundreds wanted to influence the public, they turned to newspaper editors for help. Editors were the glue of political parties in a time when the population was dispersed all over Ontario. Without newspaper editors, politicians would have had to travel all over the province to explain their positions. So you see, here in the middle there, that second sentence the writer has just dropped in the quotation, we don't know who said it. We don't know the significance of it. It just dropped in. And as a professor, in teaching in universities for now about 14 years and reading a lot of school papers, research papers, term papers, a lot of students do that. They just drop the quote in and they let the reader figure it out, you know, and they don't necessarily attribute it to anybody. Um, and I think this comes from the cut and paste feature of Microsoft Word that students can just find a quote, write it down and drop it in, and and that's probably the easiest way to to do those kind of papers. But it isn't effective. Quotes should not sit alone like that, like a bomb in the middle of the paragraph. I'm gonna fix that paragraph that I just showed you with a lead in. So you must lead in or lead out of your quotations in paragraphs. So here's that same paragraph. When politicians of the late 18 hundreds wanted to influence the public, they turned to newspaper editors for help. Samuel Edwards wrote that editors quote were the glue of political parties in a time when the population was dispersed all over Ontario. Without newspaper editors, politicians would have had to travel all over the province to explain their positions. So see, I bowled it here just to make it totally obvious. Ah, what the lead in is And that is Samuel Edwards wrote that editors quote, and then the quote goes on from there. So that's the lead in that we need. It's a smooth transition creates a nice transition into the quotation. We find out who actually said the quotation because in the previous example, there was no indication of who said it was just putting quotes. So keep that in mind as a way to lead in. I don't have a lead out on this, uh, paragraph, but an obvious one with the end end quote Mark said Samuel Edwards. If you want to do it that way, that that you often see in novels right in books, one character said, You know this