As a writer, you are the safari guide. You must blaze the trail for the reader through an essay. The first path opened up for the reader is the topic sentence.  The topic sentence found in the introduction paragraph must capture the reader's interest.

The essay's body follows the introduction.  It contains the paragraphs that tell the events using facts, examples, reasons, and other information.  To keep the reader's attention use interesting verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in the body of the essay.

The final section of the essay or the conclusion summarizes the connections between the information discussed in the body of the paragraph and the paragraph's topic sentence.  The concluding sentence restates the topic sentence keeping the reader focused.  The conclusion reminds the reader what the main idea of the paragraph is and what it means (why it is important). As a closing to your conclusion, relate your topic sentence to the present or future, or to your own life now.

Watch out for these pitfalls!
  1. Don’t use "I" or first person in paragraphs other than personal narratives: use third person point of view (he, she, it etc.)
  2. Don't use "This paragraph will explain," or "This paragraph will be about" as a beginning. Instead, write a clear topic sentence that eliminates these unnecessary words and focuses on the subject and purpose. For example, instead of "This paragraph is about the space program and all the innovations that have helped society" write "Innovations from the space program have helped advance society."
  3. Straying from the main idea: check each sentence to make sure it belongs in the paragraph. If it doesn’t, take it out. 
  4. Wordiness: take out all unnecessary words.
  5. Unclear pronoun references: never start a sentence with the words "this" or "that" etc. The reader may not know what "that" means.
  6. Insufficient transition.  Ideas should link to one another.
  7. Never introduce new information in the conclusion. Extend your thinking on something from the essay.


Choose a prompt and develop a 5 paragraph essay.