A unit of language larger than sentence is called as a discourse.
Thus, paragraph, essay, poem, short story etc are all discourses. The most common discourses that students have to write are summary, report, review or article/ essay. All these discourses comprise a smaller discourse i.e. paragraph. So, composing a good paragraph is an essential skill in discourse writing.
Meaning is not determined by words or sentences in isolation. It is in the unity of the whole text-discourse-that meaning is communicated. So, it is very important how we organise a discourse.
What is a paragraph
One point+ its explanation: This is a simple, but effective way to think about paragraph. Single point paragraph gives a unified impression.
A Typical Five Sentence model of paragraph
[The given example is the second paragraph in a report on a community education programme conducted by a school]
First sentence: topic sentence
Second, third and fourth sentences: demonstration of the point in the topic sentence
Fifth sentence: conclusion
Topic sentence:
A topic sentence contains three parts: introducing or linking phrase, controlling idea and the topic
Eg: To consider the bright side first, the community education programme was effective in making a fruitful communication between the school and the local public.
In this sentence-
Introducing phrase- To consider the bright side first
Topic- community education programme
Controlling idea- was effective in making a fruitful communication between the school and the local public
Sentences 2-4: Demonstration
In demonstration, we explain the controlling idea in the topic sentence. It means the ‘what’, ’why’ or ‘how’ of it. In case of the above example, we must explain ‘was effective………….local public’.
Eg: The interactive sessions that we have arranged after every lecture were rich with lively responses from all sections of local people. Not only that they cleared their doubts, but also put forward suggestions about how a school should meet the needs of the local community. These sessions enlightened both sides and a very productive rapport was established between the school personnel and the immediate society around it.
Sentence 5- conclusion:
Conclusion is the same content as the topic sentence. We restate the controlling idea in the topic sentence in the light of the previous discussion in sentences 2-4.
In our example: Thus, the programme was a great success in realizing its first goal of developing constructive exchange of ideas between the school and people.