Paragraph (Written Conventions)

THE PARAGRAPH (Written Conventions of English)

A paragraph is a group of sentences dealing with a particular point or idea. One sentence (often, but not always, the first in the paragraph), called the topic sentence, should clearly state the central idea. The other sentences, called supporting sentences, do as their name suggests: they support the idea in the topic sentence. These should be arranged in a way that makes sense: chronologically (in the order in which things happen), spatially (like walking through a room), or in order of importance (either most to least or least to most). Sentences in a paragraph should flow from one to the next, with proper transitions. Often, the topic is repeated in a "clincher" sentence at the end.

• In a document, the start of each paragraph may be indented, or paragraphs may be separated by an extra space, or both.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)