5 Main Mistakes in Writing a Paragraph

September 19, 2016| Category: Writing Tips

Essay writing is one of the main responsibilities students have to accomplish while education. Most students
are aware of the five-paragraph structure and follow it precisely. Also, depending on the length of an essay
students can deviate from this structure and to write essays of six and more paragraphs. Being aware of
plagiarism, length, and thesis statement in the essay, many students forget that correctly constructed
paragraphs are no less important. Therefore, the main ideas I want to discuss today is developing effective
and strong paragraphs, which support A+ essays.
A paragraph is an essential part of an essay. No essay can get A unless the paragraphs are correctly
developed. I would like to discuss 5 main mistakes students make in developing paragraphs, which influence
their essay writing procedure.
What is a paragraph?
A paragraph is a structured part of an essay, which reflects some accomplished idea. A paragraph consists of
several sentences, which help disclose the idea and to make it clear for a reader. Each essay consists of
several paragraphs, which can serve different function.
The introductory paragraph provides the background of the topic and introduces the main idea of an essay to
a reader. Such paragraph is important since it helps a reader to be involved in the atmosphere and to get
some starting idea of what is going to be discussed. The main mistake in the introductory sentence is the
absence of the thesis statement. A thesis statement is a crucial part for essay writing; it states the core idea of
the essay.
The conclusive paragraph summarizes an essay in general. No new ideas must be presented in the conclusion
since it is the repetition of the statements made in whole essay. Students should also repeat their thesis,
having rephrased it a bit. One of the main mistakes students make in the conclusion is inserting new
statements and ideas. Essay writing should be logical and all new statements should appear in the main body
The paragraphs of the main body are the core focus of essay writing. This is the part where students state and
explain their ideas, elaborate on the theories and draw conclusions. However, it is also the part where
students make more mistakes in paragraph structure.
5 Mistakes in Writing a Paragraph
1. Too short. Many students write too short paragraphs of 1-3 sentences. However, it is wrong since a
paragraph is an accomplished idea and it is impossible to conclude something in 2-3 sentences. This volume
can be used to state some problem or idea and to accomplish it one needs to expand a paragraph to at least
4-5 full complicated sentences. Short sentences are not counted.
2. Too long. Hence, writing too long paragraphs is also a mistake. Writing an essay, students should
remember that someone is going to read it. Usually, after 8-9 sentences a realer loses the focus and fails to
follow the idea. Too long sentences frustrate a reader from the main point of the paragraph and reading
becomes boring and uninteresting.
3. No structure. Absence of the structure can also become a problem. Students can consider a paragraph
as a very focused short essay, devoted to one small idea. Therefore, the introductive sentence, several main
body sentences and the conclusive sentence are to be present in each paragraph.
4. Absence of a topic sentence. Writing a paragraph, each student should think of one specific idea
he/she is going to discuss. A topic sentence in a paragraph is like a thesis statement in the essay. It depicts
the main idea of a unit. Students should remember about it and make their essays focused on the topic
sentences. In such case, the paragraphs will be focused.
5. No focus. Absence of a focus is another problem in writing a paragraph procedure. If students do not
structure the essay and do not follow this plan, each paragraph can be a collection of some ideas, which are
not related to each other. However, if students create paragraphs of the required length, have a topic sentence
and structure their paragraphs appropriately, the paragraph will be focused on some particular idea
automatically
https://4writers.net/blog/5-main-mistakes-in-writing-a-paragraph/