Paragraph Development

By Nikhil Joshi Lecturer in Language & Communication Skills IT Dept.-GCET E-mail: nikhiljoshi@gcet.ac.in Blog: www.gcet-languageclub.blogspot.com

Introduction
A paragraph is a group of sentences or a single sentence that forms a unit. It is a group of related sentences which express an idea. It may express an opinion, provide information through the use of facts and details, tell a story or simply describe a person, a place, an object or a feeling.

Main Idea
Before you begin to determine the composition of your paragraphs, you must first understand what the controlling idea is in your specific piece of writing.. What is the main point that you are trying to convey to your reader? Choose information that will help to support and perpetuate the central idea through out the entire paper.

Generating Ideas
Who is my targeted audience? What do I want to say? Why am I writing it? The whole process is an organic one.

Components of a Paragraph
Topic Sentence: expresses main idea-may appear at beginning, middle or end. Coherence: properly connected sentencesmove easily from one thought to another -take care of pronoun references -repetition of key words -Transitional tags like conjunctions: and, but, however, moreover etc.

Components of a Paragraph
Unity Adequate development Formulation of controlling idea Explanation of idea Example Completion of paragraph or transition into next paragraph Length

Techniques for Paragraph Development

Illustration Comparison & Contrast Classification Problem & Solution

Conclusion
Mark the paragraph divisions based on unity Put each idea into a separate paragraph Construct short paragraphs for memos, letters, circulars and notices Do not have too much variation in length of your paragraphs in a text.

T h a n k y o u

nIKHIL jOSHI
e-mail: nikhiljoshi@gcet.ac.in nikhileshjoshi@yahoo.co.in My Websites: www.geocities.com/nikhiljoshi/saregama www.nikhiljoshi2007.blogspot.com www.gcet-languageclub.blogspot.com