Sound Writing

Body paragraphs are the different “landmarks” of your essay. These are the spaces where you can offer evidence for your claims, explain how and why specific details support your claims, and discuss the implications each claim has for the overall argument.

If you need more than one body paragraph to make a point, don’t be afraid to take that space! You may need a few body paragraphs to give yourself enough space to fully explicate your evidence or support a single claim. However, if you find yourself needing to write pages and pages about one part of your argument, this may be an indication that you are trying to cover too much ground. When you go back and revise, you may want to consider either eliminating extraneous or unnecessary information or refocusing your thesis around the part of your argument you feel is the strongest or the most interesting to you.

If you find yourself writing paragraphs that are pages long, don’t worry—they can almost always be broken down into smaller paragraphs. Try identifying points in the paragraph that would be a logical place for a paragraph break. These include transitions shifting from one idea to another (“however,” “although,” “in contrast,” etc.), sudden changes in topic, and introductions to a new claim or a new piece of evidence. Enter a paragraph break at these points and see if the paragraphs work as two distinct entities within the larger body; keep in mind you may need to write a new topic sentence or two to preserve logic fluency.

If you find yourself writing paragraphs that are only a couple of sentences long, don’t stress. Shorter paragraphs are sometimes helpful for filling in the gaps or acting as transitions between larger claims. However, a proliferation of shorter paragraphs may confuse and disorient the audience. Try outlining each of your paragraphs before you begin writing to help you flesh them out (see Section 3.6 and Subsection 4.1.3 for more tips on how to structure your paragraphs).