#Definition paragraph examples how to#

Joyce, when he was frisky, could put together a sentence as intricate and as glittering as a necklace for Cleopatra, but my favorite sentence in his short story “Eveline” is this one: “She was tired.” At that point in the story, no other words could break the heart of a reader as those three words do. “To be or not to be?” asks Shakespeare’s Hamlet. ” It’s a great example of how a body paragraph supports the thesis, which in this case is: To write well, “keep it simple.”Īs for your use of language: Remember that two great masters of language, William Shakespeare and James Joyce, wrote sentences which were almost childlike when their subjects were most profound.

#Definition paragraph examples how to#

The following sample comes from Vonnegut’s essay “ How to write with style. In it, he himself looks to other literary phenoms William Shakespeare and James Joyce. To understand how these components make up a body paragraph, let’s look at a sample from literary icon Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Conclusion (Summary): This is your paragraph’s concluding sentence, summing up or reasserting your original point in light of the supporting evidence.Supporting sentences: These make up the “body” of your body paragraph, with usually one to three sentences that develop and support the topic sentence’s assertion with evidence, logic, persuasive opinion, or expert testimonial.Topic sentence: A sentence-almost always the first sentence-introduces what the entire paragraph is about.Transitions: These are a few words at the beginning or end of a paragraph that connect the body paragraph to the others, creating a coherent flow throughout the entire piece.A good body paragraph contains the following four elements, some of which you may recognize from our ultimate guide to paragraphs : Think of individual paragraphs as microcosms of the greater work each paragraph has its own miniature introduction, body, and conclusion in the form of sentences.

After all, it’s what’s on the inside that counts! Structure of a body paragraph We explain precisely how to write a body paragraph so your writing has substance through and through.

But in terms of volume, body paragraphs comprise almost all of your work. They fulfill additional responsibilities of preparing the reader and sending them off with a lasting impression, which is why every good writer knows how to write an introduction and how to write a conclusion. Grammarly helps you write your best Write with Grammarlyĭon’t get us wrong-introductions and conclusions are crucial.