We’ve all heard our professors say a well-written essay has two main qualities: they are coherent and concise. The problem is many students don’t know how to go about writing such essays. Fortunately, if you have the right arguments to support your thesis statement, it is only a matter of structuring them. This is where body paragraphs come into play.
What Is a Body Paragraph?
Body paragraphs are all the paragraphs that make up an article of writing, with the exception of the very first and last one, i.e., introduction and conclusion. They may vary in terms of length, topic, or content but all written work must contain body paragraphs in order for it to make sense. While an article of writing (e.g., essay) can’t be complete without a proper introduction and conclusion, its essence and reason for existing lies in the body paragraphs.
What Are the Elements of a Body Paragraph?
We think of body paragraphs as essays that have been shrunken down—fun-size essays, if you will. Much like an essay, a body paragraph is made of a few components:
Transitions: Words, expressions, or even whole sentences used at the beginning or end of a body paragraph in order to achieve a continuous glide between paragraphs.
Topic sentence: The first sentence in a body paragraph that acts as the introduction of said paragraph.
Supporting sentences: Used to back up the claim made in the topic sentence with relevant facts and arguments.
Concluding sentence: Used to wrap up the whole idea of the paragraph by summarizing it.
How to Write a Body Paragraph?
As we’ve already mentioned, a body paragraph resembles an essay structure-wise. Length-wise, on the other hand — not so much. This means you have only a few sentences to get your point across so:
- Write with intent. Body paragraphs exist because of a claim you made in your thesis statement, and their primary purpose is to back up that claim. This is where you use facts, statistics, experiments, etc., to convince your reader of your point.
- Plan beforehand. Sure, having convincing arguments to support your claims is essential, but you must also know how to structure them. Use an outline and also have your arguments ready to see what fits where best.
How to start a body paragraph?
We start a paragraph with a topic sentence. Through this sentence we let our readers know what will be discussed in the rest of the paragraph by making a claim or stating a fact through the topic sentence. You can use a simple statement or even ask a question, but the topic sentence should always make clear to the reader the purpose of the paragraph.
How to end a body paragraph?
After you’ve provided sufficient arguments or evidence to support your topic sentence, it’s time for the grand finale- wrapping it up. How you end things is often as important as how you start them, so make sure to use your concluding sentence wisely. In a concise, non-repetitive, and preferably clever way, summarize your point in the paragraph. Go out with a bang by leaving your readers informed and impressed.
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Why Is a Body Paragraph Important?
The body part of your essay, composed of body paragraphs, is the very essence of your essay. Body paragraphs are the ideal structure for most, if not all, articles of writing. You see, in writing, we don’t have such things as intonation or body language, so we use body paragraphs to make our arguments as comprehensible as possible.
So, dividing the body of an essay into shorter sections like paragraphs can make even the most complex work accessible to most people. Learning to structure your writing into paragraphs ensures a simpler writing process for you, and a fairly undemanding, fun piece for your readers.