Chapter 1

Writing a
Paragraph
Paragra
ph
 Is a sentence or a group of sentences developing a single
idea or unit of thought. A sentence is also a unit of thought
but while a sentence expresses an idea, a paragraph
develops an idea.
Writing a Paragraph
Composing a paragraph is one communication activity which
can prove very exciting and fulfilling for a student to whom any
educational undertaking is always a most welcome task. This
kind of work often proves difficult as it demands of the
composer a great deal of creativity and know-how in putting
down thoughts together.
Tips on Creating a
Good Paragraph
Tip #1 Pitch Your
Point.
This mean figuring out very well
what you want to drive home your
reader or listener and lay it down.

Example of a point:

Market Day was usually a Bargain Sale Day

in Santa Barbara.
Tip #2 Support Your
Point.
This means hat you need to back
up your point with explanations,
proofs or reasons that will help
bring home desired message.

Example of a supporting
Sentences:
All prime commodities gets sold at
relatively low prices. The same was true
with the prices of luxury items. Generally,
customers is able to buy every items
cheaper by as much twenty five percent .
Tip #3 Write Your
Paragraph in Style.
In order to do this. You should use effective
words & expression. Also use, action words,
specific names, coloring words, radiant or
glowing expressions and other language
devices every time needed and possible

Example of styling:

Market Day was usually a Bargain Sale Day

in Santa Barbara. Rice, fish, meat,
vegetables, sugar and oil gets sold at
relatively low prices. The same was true
with the prices of trinkets , handbags, fans,
Tip #4 Make it
Grammatically
Correct
This means that you guard your
paragraph against grammatical
error or weed it out grammatical
flaws.

Example of a point:

Market Day was usually a Bargain Sale Day

in Santa Barbara. Rice, fish, meat,
vegetables, sugar and oil get sold at
relatively low prices. The same is true with
the prices of trinkets , handbags, fans,
4 Tips on Creating a
Good Paragraph.
1. Pitch Your Point.
2. Support Your Point.
3. Write Your Paragraph in Style.
4. Make It Grammatically Correct.
Topic Sentence of a
Paragraph
The Central Thought of the
whole paragraph.
Expressed Topic
Sentence
An expressed topic sentence is found
anywhere in the 1st or last sentence of the
paragraph. It illustrates or affirms what is
to follow; and illustrative topic sentence,
explanation or expansion of which
constitutes the paragraph; or an
interrogative topic sentence wherein the
answer constitutes the paragraph itself.
Example:
Ours is a paradoxical world. The achievements
which are its glory threaten to destroy it. The
nations with the highest standard of living, the
greatest capacity to take care of their people
economically , the broadest education and the
most enlighten morality and religion, exhibit the
least capacity to avoid mutual destruction in war.
It would seem that the more civilized we become,
the more incapable we are of maintaining
civilization.

*The point driven home is our

topic sentence.
Transitions Within A
Paragraph
Has to do with the way you tie your sentences
together. To enable your readers to follow your
thoughts easily, you must use transitional
devices.

*The point driven home is our

topic sentence.
 2. Connectives
These maybe used for the following reasons:

Time Contrast Cause & Effect General to Specific

Then However Therefore In fact
Now Nevertheless Thus Especially
Next Yet Hence For instance
First Even though Consequently For example
Second Despite So
Summary
In summary
To sum up
Addition
Reference naturally
Also
The former
Too Attitude
The latter
Furthermore Fortunately
In conclusion
moreover Unfortunately
besides
Finally
Example:
Now that mosquitoes happily abound in my
neighborhood, I feel I should at least derive come
pleasure out of their abundance. The mosquito must
have a high and hidden purpose, as yet unrevealed
to our finite mind. Indeed I am inclined to believe
that she has, ( I use the feminine pronoun advisedly,
as the mosquito which draws a bit precious blood
from us as a matter of necessity is a female vampire,
the male being bred.) but man never discover that
purpose as long as he depreciating attributes to the
dull of wit among us “mosquito mind”. Wisdom has
been said to begin with the realization of one’s
ignorance. I think it can only begin when humans
realize that we know a trifle less than a mosquito
3. Repetition of Key
Words
Observe how the underlined words acts
as bridges between ideas.

I read an article “ Psychology Today “. In

this article it said that people’s name can
influence their personalities. If this is true,
then it would be worthwhile to
recommend the article to friends so they
would discover how their names can
possibly influence their personalities.
4. Parallel Structure
This means putting your words,
phrases, or clauses in the same form
whenever best to do or whenever
called by the situation
Example:
Man is the highest of all creations. Woman is the
most sublime of all ideals. God made for man a
throne; for a woman, the altar; the throne exalts, the
altar sacrifices. Man is the cerebrum, woman is the
heart; the cerebrum fabricates light; the heart
produces love. Light fecunds , love resuscitates. Man
is the code, woman is the gospel; the code corrects,
the gospel perfects. Man is the genius, woman is an
angel; genius is indefinable, angel is immeasurable.
Man is strong in reason, woman is invincible in her
tears; reason convinces the most stubborn, tears
soften the hardest of mortals. Man is the temple,
woman is the sanctuary; before the temple we revere,
before the sanctuary we kneel. Man is the ocean,
4 Transitional
Devices.
1. Pronouns.
2. Connectives.
3. Repetition of Key
Words.
4. Parallel Structure.
 Good
Paragraph
A good paragraph is so organized that it moves smoothly and
progresses inevitably towards an end. Every sentence has its
reasons or purpose for being there. To attain this, the
paragraph should have unity, coherence, and emphasis, the
same qualities desired in a good sentence.
3 Important Qualities
of Good Paragraph
1. Unity in A
Paragraph.
The principle of unity involves the choice of a
basic idea built along a single design and
producing oneness of effect or impression. To
obtain unity, the paragraph should be built
around the topic sentence

Example :

The medium of literature is language. Language,

as we know, is composed of words that are
combined into sentences to express ideas,
emotions, or desires. Words have both sound and
meaning. The word “horse”, for instance, stands
for the sound horse and animal horse. These are
usually associated and are separated only by an
2. Coherence In A
Paragraph.
Coherence refers to the orderly arrangement of ideas or
materials needed in the progression or sequencing of
thought. The ideal setup is for one sentence to lead naturally
into the next, and go on until the end is reached. This may be
achieved with an orderly arrangement of ideas and with use
of effective structural devices.
Kinds of Effective
structural devices :
1. Orderly 2. The Use of Effective
Arrangement Of
a. Chronological Order a.Structural
Correct Use OfDevices
Reference Words
Ideas
b. Order of Point of View b. The Use Of Well-Organized
c. Logical Order Sentence Structures
Orderly Arrangement Of
Ideas
• The orderly arrangement of ideas may be any
of the following.
A. Chronological Order
Time order of the sequence in which the events occurred.

Example :

I boarded a jeepney whose signboard read “Blumentritt-

Avenida. ". All at once a sweet fragrance assailed my
nostrils. I looked around to find out if I could spot one
particular perfumed person among the passengers. My eyes
traveled from left to right but my nose was even more
curious. I sniffed at the young coed next to me. No, not she.
Then I shifted my seating position a little toward the matron
at the other side, to my left. Not she either. I was about to
give up when I happened to took at the direction of the
driver and I saw that the fragrance was that of a sampaguita
garland hanging from the jeepney’s stop, close the driver’s
head.
B. Order of Point of View
Here, the details are arranged such that they come either
from near to far, or from inside to outside, or from top to
bottom, or the reverse.

Example :
Virtue is she convention that rightfully belongs to the
Filipino woman. Her spiritual power in the community
rests largely on her virtue, and the men whose own
virtue has much more comfortable periphery, thanks
to the double standard, respect their women folk for
it. The Filipino male is firmly convinced that his
premarital and extramarital circumstances only
enriches his experience, but he will, with a terrible
sense of outrage, stab his wife or his sister and her
seducer if he so much as begins to doubt her
goodness. The newspaper sensationalizes such stories
C. Logical Order
This means that a paragraph can proceed either inductively
or deductively in its presentation or development of ideas.

Example :

Cannot myself state positively that we should or

should not borrow money from other people,
but I am very definite that one should lend
money to the needy. A friend of mine used to
say that a man does not come to borrow unless
he is so hard-up that he must part with his self-
respect. Whoever has the heart to turn such a
man down, he would add, hurts him as nothing
else can. Such observations are necessarily
Orderly Arrangement Of
Ideas
A.Chronological
Order
B.Order of Point of
View
C.Logical Order
The Use of Effective
Structural Devices
• Other means that help in achieving coherence in a paragraph
are the structural devices. These are helpful in providing a
continuity from one sentence to the next. This is synonymous
with the use of devices to effect transition between sentences
or between paragraphs. Two of these structural devices are the
reference words and the well-organized sentence structures.
A. Correct Use Of
Reference Words
Pronouns

Students are enjoined to give their studies priority in their

list of activities. They should realize that poor academic
performance leads to loss of opportunity to succeed in their
chosen career. in the and, they Will be grateful for heeding a
good advice.
 A. Correct Use Of
Reference Words
Conjunctions or conjunctional Words phrases
Below is list arranged according to their functions in a
sentence.

Time Contrast Cause & Effect General to Specific

Then However Therefore In fact
Now Nevertheless Thus Especially
Next Yet Hence For instance
First Even though Consequently For example
Second Despite So

Addition Reference Attitude Summary

Also The former Fortunately In summary
Too The latter Unfortunately To sum up
Furthermore In conclusion Finally
moreover besides naturally
Example:
Everyone knows that a good name is a great possession;
hence, a person must strive to preserve an untarnished
reputation. Fortunately, this is within the reach of every
individual, therefore, he must know how to live within the
bounds 'of decency and integrity.
A. The Use Of Well-
Organized Sentence
Structures
These structures refer to the words, phrases and clauses that
are structured parallel and uniform when they express
similar thoughts or ideas. This parallel and uniform
structuring is very effective in creating a coherent paragraph

Example :

The chief source of humor is the incongruous, the

unexpected. We expect one thing and we find another. If
one man pulls a chair out from under another, the joke lies
on the fact that the second sits one on the floor instead of
on the chair. It is the unexpectedness that makes comedy.
Orderly Arrangement Of
Ideas
A.Correct Use Of Reference
Pronouns
Words
Conjunctions, or conjunctional words,
B. The Use Of Well-Organized
phrases
Sentence Structures
Emphasis In A Paragraph
Emphasis in paragraph means a focus on that aspect of the
subject being taken up. This can be the logical result of a
unified development of an idea in a paragraph. Or this can
result from the dominant play up of one aspect of a subject
over another one. Or, from the balance treatment of all the
aspects of the subject.

Example :
Communication is a process whereby a party called a
sender transmits a message to another party called a
sendee in order for the said message to be understood. It
may take place either verbally, meaning, when the sender
uses words in conveying his message or non-verbally when
the sender uses kinesics, paralanguage, object language,
proxemics, chronemics and other similar signs of messages.
Whether verbal or non-verbal, it makes use of different
channels of transmission of message. For it to effectively
Methods Of Developing A
Paragraph
 For the development of an idea in a
paragraph to be unified, coherent and
emphatic. it is a good practice to go by
certain methods like the following
1. Through Use Of Relevant
Details
Here the topic sentence is expanded or developed by giving
relevant supporting details.

Example :

The Filipino short-story writer writes most of the time about

life on the farm and in the province. His scenes are the nipa
house, the rice field, the threshing floor, the village church.
His characters are Mang Gorio and Aling Teria. Tancio, the
young man, and Rosa, the dalaga. His mood is often as
serene as a mountain lake. (An excerpt from 'A Garland of
Sampaguita’ by Rodolfo Severino, Jr.)
2. By Examples
The idea is best developed b giving illustrations or examples.

Example :

Psychoanalysis gives special emphasis to unconscious

motivations. Even slips of the tongue, forgetting of
appointment and other simple acts of everyday life are
traced to motives of which the individual may not be
aware of at the moment. Thus, the bored hostess, after an
insufferable evening, said, not what she intended (but
what she meant): ”Well goodbye. I’m sorry you came.”
Likewise, the debutante at a dance, much interested in a
certain young gentleman, intended to ask him when he
was going to dance with her, but instead asked, “When are
you going to marry me?” There is no good reason for
3. By Comparison Or
Contrast
You may explain a thing by comparing or contrasting it with
another. For you to be able to use this method of
development, you should therefore have at least two
subjects to write about.

Example :

Lee Harvey Oswald was the diametric opposite of John

Fitzgerald Kennedy, and he was aware of this. Significant!”
he attributed the President’s success to family wealth;
Kennedy had all the breaks. Like many delusions, this one
had a kernel of truth. One man had almost everything and
the one who almost nothing. Kennedy was spectacularly
handsome. Oswald was balding, and he had the physique
of a ferret. The President had been a brave officer during
the war: Oswald had been court-martialed. As Chief
Executive and Commander-in-Chief; Kennedy was all
powerful; Oswald was impotent. Kennedy was cheered ;
4. By Definition
To be logical. a definition must have three parts: first, the term or the
word or phrase to be defined; second, the group or the class of object
or concept to which that term belongs; and third, the different
characteristics which differentiate or distinguish it from all others of its
class.

Example :

What is happiness? Happiness is a state of mind. Lincoln

once said: “We are happy as we make up our minds to be.”
Happiness grows out of harmonious relationships with
others, based on attitudes and goodwill, tolerance,
understanding, and love. Happiness is found in little
things: a baby's smile, a letter from a friend, the song of a
bird, a light in the window “Words To Live By: The Art of
Happiness”
5. By Cause And Effect
Here the idea is developed by looking into the whys and hows of
things. This involves reasoning or explaining in terms of causal
relationships.

Example :

Floods are expected in Metro Manila during rainy days.

There are reasons why this happens all the time. One,
Manila and its immediate suburbs are under sea level or
just a bit above sea level. Another reason is the drainage
system is bad because the pipes and sewers are poorly
constructed. Lastly, the residents wantonly throw their
garbage almost anywhere except in the trash receptacles.
This habit causes clogs in the pipes and sewers. The result?
Flash floods.
End of
Chapter 1