Composing An Essay

Learning how to develop a good topic sentence is the first step toward writing a solid paragraph.Once you have composed your topic sentence, you have a guideline for the rest of the paragraph.

To complete the paragraph, a writer must support the topic sentence with additional information and summarize the main point with a concluding sentence.

This section identifies the three major structural parts of a paragraph and covers how to develop a paragraph using transitional words and phrases.

An effective paragraph contains three main parts: a topic sentence, the body, and the concluding sentence.

A topic sentence is often the first sentence of a paragraph.

A strong paragraph contains three distinct components: The foundation of a good paragraph is the topic sentence, which expresses the main idea of the paragraph.

The topic sentence relates to the thesis, or main point, of the essay (see Chapter 9 “Writing Essays: From Start to Finish” for more information about thesis statements) and guides the reader by signposting what the paragraph is about.

Ask your reader to predict what your paper will be about.

If he or she is unable to guess your topic accurately, you should consider revising your topic sentence so that it clearly defines your purpose in writing. Just as a thesis statement includes an idea that controls a document’s focus (as you will read about in Chapter 8 “The Writing Process: How Do I Begin?

They open with a general statement about a subject (reality shows) and then discuss specific examples (the reality show Last year, a cat traveled 130 miles to reach its family, who had moved to another state and had left their pet behind.

Even though it had never been to their new home, the cat was able to track down its former owners.