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Learn to Write

A guide to help you understand the process of writing and types of writing for assignments at NorQuest College.

A paragraph is made up of three different components or pieces:

  1. topic sentence - will introduce the main idea or focus of the paragraph.
  2. supporting details - will describe the main idea in a longer form or provide evidence for why the main idea is true or false.
  3. concluding sentence - allows you to wrap up your discussion of the main idea.

When writing a paragraph, you need to make sure that it has these three elements. You also need to make sure that all of your supporting details fit together, and that they all support your topic sentence.

For example:

Topic sentence:

Sarah makes the best tomato soup that I have ever tasted.

Supporting details:

Sarah uses fresh, ripe tomatoes in her soup.
Sarah cooks the soup on the stove in a big pot and not in the microwave.
She always makes sure that the soup has salt and pepper to make it taste good.

Concluding sentence:

I really enjoy when Sarah brings her tomato soup to share because it is so delicious.

 

a string of paperclips

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Transitions help you create unified paragraphs that relate to each other effectively.

Additionally, Sarah's tomato soup is my favourite because the recipe was given to her by her grandmother and it was a meal that their whole family enjoyed together.

This transition still matches with the topic of the previous paragraph (Sarah's tomato soup recipe) and will allow the author to talk about a new topic (Sarah's grandmother and family).

When you are completing a writing assignment with multiple paragraphs, make sure that your body paragraphs are able to link together, even though they deal with different topics.

Elements of Effective Body Paragraphs

  • Start each body paragraph with a clear topic sentence that states the main idea of the paragraph and connects back to your thesis statement.
  • Next, either make a point supported by evidence or introduce a piece of evidence and then analyze that evidence. Remember to include the appropriate in-text citation for each piece of evidence using APA or MLA guidelines.
  • Create flow between your pieces of evidence using transition words or signal phrases.
    • Transitions are words like: In addition, however, at the same time, moreover, in contrast…
    • Signal phrases indicate that a quote or paraphrase is coming up with expressions like: According to the author, research shows that, scholars observe that, the 2018 government report demonstrates that…
  • Add context to your quotes or paraphrases by using the source author’s name and some information about the source’s type or goals.
    Ex. In a qualitative study about effective research writing, Norquest Tutors (2023) assert that students who read lots of research papers find it easier to write them.
  • When you are organizing your body paragraphs, “build your essay around points you want to make (i.e., don’t let your sources organize your paper)” (The Writing Centre, n.d.).
  • Remember: the most information in research writing is your analysis or evaluation of the evidence so try to limit your evidence to about one third of the paragraph, leaving the other two thirds for your own words and ideas (Dickinson, n.d.).
General
Topic Sentences
Transitions
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