How to write a paragraph
For essays on your standardized exam, a paragraph should express one central idea and any supporting points relating to that idea.
That is to say, you should begin a new paragraph in your essay when you are introducing a new idea or moving on to a new point.
Paragraphing makes your essay more readable because it improves the flow and structure of your writing.
Accordingly, paragraph writing is an important skill, whether you are writing an expository essay, a personal experience essay, or a persuasive or argumentative essay.
First, you will need to know how to come up with ideas for your main body paragraphs in order to understand how to write them.
You will also need to know how to use transition words in your paragraphs.
How to write a 5 paragraph essay − Exercise
The text below is from the main body of an essay on the causes of environmental pollution. Divide the text into three main body paragraphs.
Perhaps the largest contributors to the problem of air pollution nowadays are motor vehicles. It seems that almost every family in the United States has at least one car, and many families use more than one vehicle on a regular basis. Motorized vehicles cause pollution as the exhaust from them is released into the atmosphere, especially in cities, where the problem of air pollution is more concentrated. Factories around the world also contaminate the air with smoke and the water with various effluents. Even though many industrialized nations have entered into regulations to avoid this form of pollution, other countries around the world have not followed suit. The factories in the unregulated countries continue to be the source of a great deal of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. Deterioration in the environment is exacerbated by the lack of recycling facilities in many municipalities. Although citizens of some small towns take their paper and plastic items to local recycling centers, many households are not sufficiently motivated and organized to do so. Curbside recycling needs to become more widespread in order to avoid our landfills becoming full of recyclable materials.
For the purposes of this exercise, the introduction and conclusion to the essay have not been provided.
5 paragraph essay example
Now look at the example paragraphs below. Try to identify the central idea of each one.
Perhaps the largest contributors to the problem of air pollution nowadays are motor vehicles. It seems that almost every family in the United States has at least one car, and many families use more than one vehicle on a regular basis. Motorized vehicles cause pollution as the exhaust from them is released into the atmosphere, especially in cities, where the problem of air pollution is more concentrated.
Factories around the world also contaminate the air with smoke and the water with various effluents. Even though many industrialized nations have entered into regulations to avoid this form of pollution, other countries around the world have not followed suit. The factories in the unregulated countries continue to be the source of a great deal of greenhouses gases and other pollutants.
Deterioration in the environment is exacerbated by the lack of recycling facilities in many municipalities. Although citizens of some small towns take their paper and plastic items to local recycling centers, many households are not sufficiently motivated and organized to do so. Curbside recycling needs to become more widespread in order to avoid our landfills becoming full of recyclable materials.
Notice that each paragraph has one central idea.
The first paragraph discusses motor vehicles.
The second paragraph discusses factories, and the third paragraph discusses recycling.