Sentences and Paragraphs

Sentences

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Your writing should not consist of several simple sentences in a row.  It is important to be able to vary sentence types as you write.   Likewise,  it is important to recognize when you have written a complete sentence.  A good overview of the structure of sentences and sentence types can be found here.

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Paragraphs

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Paragraphs can be defined as a series of sentences that focus on one main idea or concept.   As an initial strategy for writing paragraphs,  start with a topic sentence, followed by detail sentences, followed by a concluding or summarizing sentence.   Here is an example of a paragraph using this format.  

 

Topic sentence: "Electric cars are the future in the auto industry."

Detail sentences: "As climate change gets worse, governments are going to start limiting the number of gasoline cars being built.  The cost of gas will continue to rise, which will make it harder for people to afford to run gas powered cars.  As battery technology improves, electric cars will be able to travel further on a charge and cost less to buy."

Concluding sentence: "Eventually, most gas powered cars will be replaced by electric cars."

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The above paragraph was borrowed from here.

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The structure of a simple  paragraph ( topic sentence,  details,  concluding sentence) can be carried over into the writing of a simple essay or theme.   For a discussion of this, look here.

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You can listen to a short presentation of how to write a paragraph here.

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Combining Paragraphs

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Paragraphs can be more complex than this.  A good discussion of more complex parargraphs can be found here.