A good paragraph has unity.
- All sentences relate to the same main idea.
- All sentences support each other
A good paragraph has organization.
- Ideas follow some kind of logical pattern.
- Ideas might be set in time order.
- Ideas might be set in spatial order.
- Ideas might be set in order of importance.
- Ideas might be set to logically follow one after another.
Three Kinds of Paragraphs
There are three main kinds of paragraphs.
- Narrative Paragraph: this paragraph tells a story, a part of a story, or tells something that happened.
- Descriptive Paragraph: this paragraph uses words to create a picture of something and often appeals to the senses.
- Explanatory Paragraph: this paragraph might tell how something is done, how to do something, or it might explain exactly what something is.
Exercise #1
Read the following opening and closing sentences that belong to different paragraphs. Decide what kind of paragraph each would fit.
- 1. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich has several layers.........As you can see, it's easy to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
- 2. The wind blew ice cold against his face......Shivering uncontrollably, Jon was sorry he had forgotten to fill the gas tank in his car.
- 3. On Monday, several students got lost on the way to school.....The rest of the school would always remember how long those hours had been.
- 4. Baseball is a sport requiring both good hitting, throwing and running skills....Clearly baseballs players must be good athletes.
- 5. Crisp, hot, cheesy pizza is the most mouth watering food in the world....Pizza sets my stomach into a happy frenzy.
Exercise #2
Add details in between each opening and closing sentence above to write five paragraphs showing different methods of development.
