Thursday, December 8, 2011

Paragraph Tips

Well done to everyone who has sent in their paragraph for the first week!  One benefit from writing a paragraph each week is that it is great writing practice.  This post collects some tips and resources that you may find helpful when writing your weekly paragraph.

Writing is an iterative process.  It starts with thinking clearly about what you want to say.  Often, it helps to identify the key ideas or points that you want to communicate.  Once you have a reasonably good idea of what you want to say, you can start thinking about how to say it and to think about your paragraph.

It is helpful to always remember the fact that a paragraph is made of sentences, and that sentences are made of words.  A typical length for a paragraph is about three to five sentences.  In addition to this quantitative guideline, there are also other helpful guidelines about paragraph structure that have a huge impact on writing quality.

A typical length for a sentence is 15 to 20 words.  Sentences, too, have structure.  Good structure makes sentences much easier to read and to understand.

While often not a complete sentence, title should also be chosen with care.  Often, you might find it useful to think of your title as a headline.   Think of titles as an advertisement for your work, because many people will only read what you wrote more closely if the title convinces them to do so.

Finally, each word and group of words should also be chosen carefully.  We never stop learning how to write better.  You might enjoy taking this online test.  Checkout their statistics about word knowledge.  The essential advise for improving your word choice, sentences, and paragraph structure is the same:  Keep things simple and short, and remember that your goal is for the reader to understand and enjoy what you are saying.