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Courtesy the Odegaard Writing & Research Center
http://www.depts.washington.edu/owrc
Strong Body Paragraphs
A strong body paragraph explains, proves, and/or supports your paper’s
argumentative claim or thesis statement. If you’re not sure how to craft one, try
using this handy guide!
1. INSERT A TOPIC SENTENCE:
Encapsulates and organizes an entire paragraph. Although topic sentences may appear
anywhere in a paragraph, in academic essays they often appear at the beginning. When
creating a topic sentence, ask yourself what‟s going on in your paragraph. Why you
chosen to include the information you have? Why is the paragraph important in the
context of your argument or thesis statement? What point are your trying to make?
It should be noted that relating your topic sentences to your thesis can help strengthen
the coherence of your essay. If you include an argumentative claim or thesis statement
in your introduction, then think of incorporating a keyword from that statement into the
topic sentence. But you need not be overly explicit when you echo the thesis statement.
Better to be subtle rather than heavy-handed. Do not forget that your topic sentence
should do more than just establish a connection between your paragraph and your
thesis. Use a topic sentence to show how your paragraph contributes to the
development of your argument by moving it that one extra step forward. If your topic
sentence merely restates your thesis, then either your paragraph is redundant or your
topic sentence needs to be reformulated. If several of your topic sentences restate your
thesis, even if they do so in different words, then your essay is probably repetitive.
Although most paragraphs should have a topic sentence, there are a few situations when
a paragraph might not need a topic sentence. For example, you might be able to omit a
topic sentence in a paragraph that narrates a series of events, if a paragraph continues
developing an idea that you introduced (with a topic sentence) in the previous
paragraph, or if all the sentences and details in a paragraph clearly refer—perhaps
indirectly—to a main point. The vast majority of your paragraphs, however, should have
a topic sentence.
2. EXPLAIN YOUR TOPIC SENTENCE:
Does your topic sentence require further explanation? If so, add another 1-2 sentences
explaining your topic sentence here.
3. INTRODUCE YOUR EVIDENCE:
Most academic papers require students to integrate evidence (often quotes, but it can
also include statistics, figures, common sense examples, etc.) to support the claim(s)
made in the paragraph and/or the paper as a whole. When including evidence, make
sure it is integrated smoothly into the text of the paper. Readers should be able to
move from your words to your evidence without feeling a logical or mechanical jolt.
When introducing quotes, always a) identify the source and b) summarize to provide
context. Many terms may be used to introduce quoted material: asserts, believes,
claims, comments, confirms, declares, defines, describes, explains, indicates, makes
clear, proposes, etc. However, these terms are not interchangeable. Make your choice
based on your meaning.
Example #1: All of us know the grammar of our own language because, as Robert C.
Pooley writes, "grammar is the structure: the observation of what people do when they
use English words in discourse” (95).