3 Tips for Writing Better Paragraphs

Sharpen your pilcrows, people, today we’re talking paragraphs!

Hi, friends, welcome back. Unfortunately, there’s really no better way to start than just ripping off the bandage right away. Paragraphs are made up.

That is, there is no formal, official definition for a paragraph. And we’ve seen something similar with sentences before: while there is an official definition of a clause, sentences are just too varied to have a single, universal definition—sentences are just whatever happens between a capital letter and a period.

And for paragraphs, the definition is a variation on the theme—whatever happens between one indented line and the next is a paragraph. Anything beyond that is just too hard to pin down.

(And yeah, that means the rule that paragraphs are 3-4 sentences long is a totally made up rule. So you’re welcome, or I’m sorry depending on who you are)

But anyway, even though paragraphs don’t have rules, that doesn’t mean that readers don’t have expectations in mind when they read your paragraphs. So, you may not be able to write a paragraph that’s wrong, but you could write a paragraph that isn’t very good.

Our goal today is to give you three guidelines that will set you up with an understanding of how paragraphs work so that you can write stronger paragraphs in this bold, rule-free paragraphing world. And, of course, the whole purpose of the show is to set you up with the understanding you need to be a better writer in any situation. So, if that’s your cup of hot chocolate, why not subscribe as we get into it.

Make them Focused

The first thing to keep in mind while you’re writing your paragraphs is to keep them focused on one main idea.

The only thing we really know about paragraphs is that they start with an indented line (or some other kind of white space) and end with a line break. What happens in between those two points is up to you, but those white space boundaries also turn paragraphs into little contained units of writing.

That means that there should be some kind of integrity in your paragraph. There should be some reason why everything in a given paragraph is there.

So, you could think of your whole paper as a kitchen, and then you could imagine that each paragraph is a drawer. There are no rules about what can or can’t go in a drawer, so you could just toss all your kitchen tools into whatever drawer you feel like. No one would arrest you for that.

But, now imagine that somebody else was going to cook something in your kitchen. They would have a miserable time finding what they need to get the job done—where are the measuring spoons? What about the chef’s knife? Where you do keep the whisks?

Obviously, a stranger would have a much easier time cooking in your kitchen if all the supplies were organized into labeled drawers. One for knives, one for measuring utensils, another for spoons and spatulas, etc.

Instead of throwing anything anywhere, an organized kitchen has drawers with reasons for what goes inside them. There’s a drawer for sharp things and another for stirring things. When there are reasons for things to be together in drawers, it gets much easier for you or your guest to navigate the kitchen while you cook.

And a very similar thing is at work with a paragraph. Readers are kind of like strangers working in your kitchen. They don’t know why you have put things in particular paragraphs, and they’re going to have a much easier time understanding your point when your paragraphs have clear labels of what’s inside and when their contents actually match those labels.

So paragraphs should be focused on one main idea—like a drawer for organizing knives—and they should tell the reader what they’re about pretty early on.

Keeping that principle in mind will help you to avoid writing what I call “junk drawer” paragraphs. Almost every kitchen has a junk drawer, forgotten in a corner and full of mismatched odds and ends like keys, sticks of gum, and loose screws.

And junk drawer paragraphs are similar: they talk about multiple things at once in no particular order. Then, maybe at the end, they’ll have a concluding sentence that kinda sorta explains how they all fit together—but not always.

Now, you as a writer might know why you’re lumping a bunch of ideas all together in one paragraph, but your reader is going to have a hard time seeing the logic without some help. That’s why a focused topic sentence—or a sentence that announces what the paragraph is about—can be so helpful. It helps readers to know how they should interpret the information that is about to get thrown at them, and it helps to keep you honest: anything that doesn’t fit the label for the paragraph shouldn’t be there.

So keep your paragraphs focused. Everything that goes in the drawer should have a reason for being in that drawer, and it should be pretty clear to your readers why the sentences and ideas in a paragraph have been put in the same drawer.

Make them Purposeful

Our first tip had to do with what goes into your paragraphs, or what your paragraphs are. This one, has to do with what your paragraphs are doing to help your paper accomplish its overall goal. That is, each paragraph should have a clear purpose, and each part of a paragraph should as well.

And this can be a tricky thing to get right. For example, a spoon is a stick with a little cup on the end. But a spoon does scooping and stirring.

And your paper could be about the ocean—but it could be doing very different things related to that topic. It could just be informing people about the seafloor—or it could be persuading the government to move funding from space exploration to ocean research. Those two papers would have very different purposes, despite sharing similar content. And, as a result, the paragraphs of each paper would have to do particular things to support the overall goal of the paper.

So let’s take that argument about a deep sea research station as an example.

For a paper like that, the overall goal is to persuade the audience to fund a project to build an undersea base. That’s what the paper is meant to do.

Now, what are the individual paragraphs doing?

If you’re going to persuade someone to build something at the bottom of the ocean, you probably need to help them understand why it’s needed in the first place.

So, you could have a paragraph that explains the problem your proposal is trying to solve—maybe it’s a complex problem with multiple aspects—great, now you have multiple paragraphs that are all working together to establish different aspects of the problem.

Then, you’ll need paragraphs that show how your proposal is actually a solution to the problem. They could be whatever they’re about—but they also need to do the task of validating your proposal.

And, you may want to conclude with a paragraph or more that explains the implementation of your plan. You may have shown your reader that there’s a problem and convinced them that you have a solution; now you need to show them how to make it all actually happen. And, step-by-step, you may have a series of paragraphs dealing with the practical application of your plan.

So, you see, strong paragraphs are not only about one idea—they also do one job. A purposeful paragraph can propose, explain, refute, illustrate, describe, or anything else. It doesn’t matter what your paragraph is doing, but it should be doing something—and it should probably only be doing one something.

For example, sometimes, I’ll see a student add a paragraph to a persuasive essay that just includes interesting facts the student discovered during their research, and these paragraphs are a problem when it comes to purpose. That’s because their only real purpose is to share neat stuff—not to support an argument. The paragraph doesn’t serve a purpose for the overall essay, and that means that it really doesn’t belong in the paper. Either that information needs to be given a clear purpose, or, even easier, to be deleted in a single merciless keystroke.

Make them Brief

Okay, we’ve got paragraphs that are focused on one idea and that have one central purpose. Now, we just need to make sure that our paragraphs don’t get too long.

So, for those of you watching at home, here’s a game that you can play along with our studio audience. Our producers will be flashing a set of digits on the screen, and it’s your job to memorize them and repeat them back. Are you ready?

Here comes round one: 91

What were the digits? If you said, 91, you were correct.

And round two: 202020

What were they this time? If you answered 202020, congratulations.

And, finally, round three: 12874019286581651982918692873419263187623451237426937416359182754192374

Anyone remember that last string of digits? I’m getting word from the producers that even they can’t remember the string of numbers, so the grand prize for tonight’s show is being suspended until next week.

Okay, how did you do? My guess is that you probably did okay with the first two—but the last one gave you a little bit of trouble. That’s because human brains can only hold onto so much information at one time. People do better when information is broken into smaller pieces that they can process and store in a longer-term memory drawer.

That’s why paragraphs are so useful: they give readers places to pause, process the information you present, and then reset for the next bit of information. And that’s also why long paragraphs can be so counterproductive—the longer the paragraph, the more you risk overtaxing your readers’ working memory and losing them in a rush of information.

And our first two guidelines can go a long way towards helping you to keep your paragraphs brief. Most of the long paragraphs that I see in student writing have obvious points where they shift subjects or purposes, presenting clear places to split them into smaller, more manageable chunks.

Frankly, I think one of the main reasons that I see such overwhelming Frankenstein monster paragraphs is because people have the idea that essays should only be five paragraphs long—so they try smashing two or three paragraphs into one to maintain that magical number of five. Well, believe it or not, that’s another totally made up rule. Essays can be however many paragraphs they want to be.

But, of course, what counts as “brief” will vary from situation to situation. The paragraphs I write in big academic papers are longer than the ones I write in emails. Sometimes a paragraph that has only one complex idea and one purpose needs to take up a lot of space, and that’s okay—but just be aware of your readers and their appetite for big chunks of information.

The point is that you’re generally better off with more paragraphs than with fewer because it will give your readers more opportunities to take breaks and make sense of what you’re saying. Obviously, things that belong in the same drawer should stay in the same drawer—but, if there’s a way to subdivide a drawer, there’s rarely going to be any harm in doing it.

So, when we say “make them brief,” what we really mean is don’t forget that your readers are people too. Be mindful of the limitations of their working memory and don’t force them to hold vast quantities of information at a time.

Conclusion

Well, this has been fun, hasn’t it? But, because fun, like paragraphs, are better in small doses, I suppose we should draw today’s party to a close.

Hopefully you find these guidelines helpful as you craft your own fine paragraphs. Of course, these are guidelines—not rules. Paragraphs are totally made up, after all, and I’m sure you could find really stellar ones that go against what we’ve talked about today. But I’m equally sure that those paragraphs would be the exceptions rather than the norm. For most everyday writing needs, these three tips will do just fine.

So anyway, let me know what you think. I always enjoy talking about these more technical aspects of writing, so, if there’s anything you’d like to know more about, don’t hesitate to share it in the comments.

Also, if you did find this video helpful, I hope you’ll give it a like and share it with a friend or five—especially the ones who think paragraphs have to do with Cartesian duplication. Change a life; set them on the right path.

But that’ll do it for today. Thanks a bunch for watching—now go write some positively powerful paragraphs!