By Photon Editing
One of the biggest issues that comes with writing an essay is how paragraphing works. There are so many different recommended formats and it changes from teacher to teacher, school to school, state to stay, and even country to country. Popular formats that majority of people have heard of include: SEEL, SEAL, PEEL, PETAL, TEEL, STEEL. As one would expect, having to constantly deal with these anagrams and having them change essentially every term gets extremely confusing. But here’s the thing teachers never seem to mention: all these structures, when looked at closes, are basically telling you to do the exact same thing, just in different ways. So let’s explore how to paragraph.
Disclaimer: This is for Academic Essays (we’re keeping Creative and Discursive as their own things, to be coming soon) with a focus on High School writing (University / College and professional settings have different rules, something all of us have learnt the hard way). Context is important, people!
The Three Main Types of Paragraph in Any Given Essay
In any given essay, there are three specifically needed paragraphs: An introduction paragraph, a body paragraph, and a conclusive paragraph. These are the standard across majority of essays you will be writing in your academic experience. They’re always there in some shape or form.
Let’s put them simply:
Your introduction* paragraph introduces your topic / argument.
Your body* paragraphs explore / argue your topic.
Your conclusion* paragraph concludes your topic / argument.
*We will be going more in depth into these things another time in another article.
The Heck Do I Put in a Body Paragraph?
The contents of a body paragraph will vary depending on the type of essay you’re writing and what you’re writing about. For the sake of keeping it relatively straightforward, we’re going to leave out discursive writing, though that can also have some overlap. Overall, you do need the same material. This is where the many paragraph structures mentioned at the start of this piece come into play. Instead of using one specific structure, let’s cover what all of them actually say.
The first thing is your topic line, also known as your ‘point’ or ‘statement’. This is the part where you say what your body paragraph is about. If you’re writing an analytical piece, you introduce the specific part you are analysing. If you’re writing an argumentative or persuasive piece, this is where you introduce the first point of your argument. In the same way an introduction discusses what will be said in the overall essay, your topic line (usually 1-2 sentences in high school) introduces the specific point you will be discussing in this paragraph.
The next few sentences are what can be considered the body of your body paragraph. In the same way your body paragraphs provide the information for your overall piece, this part of the paragraph is where you provide all your information. It is here you’ll put your evidence, examples and analysis. The order in which you do these things will change depending on which structure you use or are provided with, but you do need to add these things in. Without your evidence, examples and analysis, your piece becomes redundant and your teachers will be extremely unhappy. So will your markers in exam. Without evidence, examples and analysis, your essay is pointless. Depending on what your teachers expect and how much detail is needed, this part can be anywhere from 2 – 6 sentences.
The final thing you add to your body paragraph is your link sentence. This has the potential to do two things: link back to your main question and link to your next paragraph. The first is a must and will be expect of you. After all, if you can’t link everything you’ve already written in the body paragraph back to the actual question / statement you’re responding to, it’s a little pointless to write all that information in the first place. Linking to your next paragraph is also important. It sets up what you’re going to say next and provides and overall flow to your piece, something which makes it far easier to read.
How Long Am I Supposed to Make These Things?
This will change depending on your school and teacher but here is a list of the generally agreed upon numbers:
- Introduction: 3-5 sentences
- Body: 3-5 sentences per paragraph
- Conclusion: 3-5 sentences
Why Are There So Many Different Anagrams If They All Mean The Same thing?
There is no specific answer to this question despite the fact we’re all asking it. All we can figure is that everyone has their own idea of what the ‘right’ way to write a paragraph is, especially when it comes to the body.
It’s an extremely annoying issue and can cause students to feel overwhelmed (rightfully so!) but, sadly, it doesn’t appear to be an issue that will be solved anytime soon. Even so, we hope this short guide into how paragraphs work will help remove some of that unnecessary stress. Teachers are just obligated to explain things the hard way, that’s all.
Remember, no matter what structure you use, the overall requirements for what to include are the same!
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