Body Paragraphs
Body paragraphs should all work to support your thesis by explaining why or how your thesis is true. Every sentence in your body paragraphs should work toward supporting your thesis statement. Each body paragraph has three types of sentences.
Topic sentences
A topic sentence states the main idea, or focus, of the paragraph. The rest of the body paragraph will give evidence and explanations that show why or how your topic sentence is true. In many ways, a topic sentence is very similar to a thesis. The biggest differences will be the location of the sentence and the scope of the ideas.
An effective topic sentence—
- clearly supports the thesis statement.
- is usually at the beginning of a body paragraph.
- controls the content of all of the supporting sentences in its paragraph.
- is a complete sentence.
- does not announce the topic (e.g., "I'm going to talk about public transportation.").
- should not be too general (e.g., "The use of public transportation is increasing.").
- should not be too specific (e.g., "Public transportation reduces greenhouse gas emissions, provides low-cost transportation options, and allows for multitasking during the commute.").
Supporting sentences
Your body paragraph needs to explain why or how your topic sentence is true. The sentences that support your topic sentence are called supporting sentences. You can have many types of supporting sentences. Supporting sentences can give examples, explanations, details, descriptions, facts, reasons, etc.
Concluding sentences
Your final statement should conclude your paragraph logically. Conclusion sentences can restate main idea of your paragraph, state an opinion, make a prediction, give advice, etc. New ideas should not be presented in your concluding sentence.
Characteristics of Effective Body Paragraphs
All sentences in your body paragraph need to work together within the paragraph.
All the paragraphs need to work together within the essay.
As you draft and revise your paragraphs, you will need to write the sentences and paragraphs to be:
- Unified
- Developed
- Cohesive
If the sentences and paragraphs have unity, development, and cohesion, they will more likely work better together in the essay to express your main idea.
Exercises
Exercise 1: Body Paragraph Analysis
Read this example body paragraph.
- Is the topic sentence effective?
- Do the supporting sentences directly connect to the topic sentence? Or are there unnecessary or overly specific details included?
- Does the concluding sentence effectively end the point?
- Is it logically organized?
The culture, traditions, and identity of communities are represented by historic monuments. This is a reason why the conservation and preservation of historic monuments are fundamental for a country. Sometimes in the point of view of people the protection of historic monuments by the government can have some negative results. For example, they will have to pay a fee to enter a park or any historical monument, but if these places aren’t protected there won't be a place to visit and also the payment of a fee to enter a park can help the economy of a country. That is why is important that the government protects historic monuments. Another reason is that shows and displays the culture of each town or community, people will be able to learn traditions and see how people used to live, or how things were back in antiquity (DOI US, nd, para. 1). Egypt and the pyramids are an example of this, because it shows the thinking of the people that build the pyramids and the style of architecture that was used in those times. The pyramids are full of culture and transcripts that exhibit the beliefs of Egyptians many years ago (Academy for cultural diplomacy, nd, para. 2). Just like Egypt, many countries have historical monuments that display their culture and if the government does not protect these monuments, it will be just a matter of time that one day they will disappear and along with them the culture of each country.
Sources:
Academy for Cultural Diplomacy. https://www.culturaldiplomacy.org/academy/index.php?en_monuments-as-cultural-diplomacy
Walls et al. (2020). https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aay8523#:~:text=We%20find%20that%20monuments%20increased,and%20other%20industries%20that%20use
Exercise 2: Drafting Practice
A body paragraph's job is to develop and give support to the main idea of the essay, the thesis statement. Read the introduction below and consider the bolded thesis statement. What support does it need for the reader to understand or come to agree with your main idea? Write a body paragraph that would fit in an essay with the introduction below.
Introduction:
Homeschooling, teaching children in places such as their home, a library, etc. instead of enrolling them in public or private school, is something more parents are starting to choose. According to research by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, there are 1.1 million children being homeschooled, which is a 2.2 percent increase from 1998, when there were only 850,000 students (Lips & Feinberg, 2008). As the research shows, homeschooling is growing more common in the United States. Homeschooling should be encouraged because of the following advantages: higher academic achievement, closer relationships between parents and children, and healthy social, emotional, and psychological characteristics of the students
Your Body Paragraph:
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