A video that will help you to increase your vocabulary

A Well Written Paragraph

► American paragraph structure is different than the ones in other cultures:

             ▼The topic sentence:

• One central idea
• An opinion as an opener
• One thesis statement
• Has to be general
• Should be indented at the beginning

               ▼The body contains the details (sentences and all other ideas should be directly related to the main idea).

•                     Could be any length
•                     Details:                                              

o      Why is this important?

o      What are the reasons?

o      Are there any examples of this?

• There are two ways of ordering details: taking into account their level of importance, and/or chronologically (order of events)
• The body should contain:

☼Flow- bridges (Sentences with clear connections to preceding and subsequent sentences, and paragraphs whose topic sentence is connected to the closing sentence of the preceding one, and so on)

☼Key terms

☼Variety of words

☼Links between words

                                                                        ☼Synonyms in order to avoid repetition

              ▼Closing sentence

• Reminder of topic
• Must keep the reader thinking
• Must prepare the reader for the next paragraph

      ► Other things to take into account in order to write well-written paragraphs and academic papers:

• Always ask yourself about what is expected of you
• Use and make yourself fond of your module handbooks
• What are the learning outcomes within this activity?
• Use key direction words
• Make a plan
• Reread and edit
• Proof read
• Avoid going off on tangents
• Always have the title in front of you
• Provide a wide range of arguments

Students: Alvarenga Rodrigo and Mazzei Santiago

Cited Works

engVid.com (2009, May 19). Parts of a Paragraph - English Academic Writing Introduction

[Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCuExRE6N-4

engVid.com (2013, July 22). Writing Skills: The Paragraph [Video file]. Retrieved from

             https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IFDuhdB2Hk

Edge Hill University (2013, Julne 20). Introduction to Academic Writing [Video file].

            Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CelpkwseU5U