Writing Effective Paragraphs A paragraph should be unified, coherent, and well developed. Paragraphs are unified around a main point, and all sentences in the paragraph should clearly relate to that point in some way. The paragraph's main idea should be supported with specific information that develops or discusses the main idea in greater detail. Creating a Topic Sentence The topic sentence articulates the main point in a paragraph. You may create your topic sentence by …showed first 75 words of 409 total…

…showed last 75 words of 409 total…paragraph to show a change in time or place to emphasize a contrast to indicate changing speakers in a dialogue to give readers an opportunity to pause to break up a dense text Ways of Arranging Information within or between paragraphs Order of time (chronology) Order of space (descriptions of a location or scene) Order of climax (building toward a conclusion) Order of importance (from least to most important or from most to least important)