Course Sample for Our Paragraphs, Poetry, and Prose Elementary Writing Course

Paragraphs, Poetry, and Prose: Elementary Writing
By Rhonda Clark

Paragraph Basics

Lesson 1: What is a paragraph?

In every book or article you read, you can spot paragraphs. They are everywhere. Most people can identify a paragraph, but writing a cohesive one is different. So, what exactly is a paragraph?

A paragraph is a group of related sentences about a topic. It has three parts:

1. Topic sentence—tells what the paragraph is about
2. Sentences to support the topic—give more details on the topic
3. Closing sentence to sum up the topic—reminds the reader what the topic is

Now that we know what a paragraph is, it looks like a paragraph should have three sentences, right? Close, but not quite. For beginning writers, a strong paragraph contains between five and seven sentences. It breaks down this way:

1. One topic sentence
2. Three to five sentences to support the topic
3. One closing sentence to sum things up

If you read a story, article, or essay, you’ll discover that some paragraphs contain less than five sentences or more than seven. My standard for this course is that paragraphs be between five and seven sentences. Once you master the basic paragraph, you can vary your sentence count. All the assignments will require five to seven sentences in a paragraph.

We know that a paragraph requires sentences, but do you know what a sentence is? It’s a complete thought with a subject and a predicate. I won’t go into grammar rules (that’s another course), but we will take a closer look at sentences.

Every sentence you write must be a complete thought. Each complete thought builds upon the previous complete thought, much like stacking Legos to build a house. We can equate the house to a paragraph and each brick as a complete thought. What would happen if you left some bricks out in the middle of the house, or failed to snap them together properly? The house would fail. Just as a paragraph fails without correct sentences.

Now that you know the importance of sentences, let’s practice writing a simple paragraph. Write three paragraphs—five to seven sentences each—with a central thought. Don’t worry about topic or closing sentences, we’ll address those later. Focus on writing complete, correct sentences on one topic.

To view a full sample of this course, click here.