Hi everyone, in this brief article let us discuss the most reliable and productive structure of a paragraph in your essay for practically each test of English… As a tutor, I often see how students write their paragraphs haphazardly, without any structure at all. This is not a great issue – even with illogical and incoherent contents of the paragraph you can still get a good score, but why limit ourselves with something mediocre when we can attain a better result?
So, just above all: a lot of those professors out there)) recommend you and me TO PLACE THE MOST IMPORTANT IDEAS INTO THE FIRST SENTENCE OF YOUR PARAGRAPH! Think about it: your reader does not want to read all those empty sentences waiting for the main idea of the paragraph. Just give it to her/him at once. He will be thankful to you and cherish a warm feeling toward your whole essay…
The second important aspect is TO REPRODUCE THE MAIN IDEA OF YOUR PARAGRAPH IN YOUR LAST SENTENCE OF THE PARAGRAPH! Yes, just like that) You do not leave the reader a chance to forget your main idea; you nail it into his mind before he says goodbye to the paragraph. So, if you start your paragraph with smth like “cats are people’s best friends of all times” – finish the paragraph with smth like “verily, the humanity has not met so far a creature that is more amiable than those felines…”.
The third question is: What to place between these two first and last sentences?) Good question!) It depends upon the type of your essay – I hope you remember that there are descriptive essays at IELTS, TOEFL, Duolingo, PTE; there are also argumentative essays; opinion essays (which are often akin to argumentative)… A very common type is an argumentative essay. So, in this case, we should support our first topic sentence of the paragraph with the second SUPPORTIVE sentence – we try to find and render some important argument to support your main idea! After that it is a good idea to provide an example (even if you are not asked explicitly to do that). And so, we have already FOUR sentences in our paragraph: topic sentence – supportive sentence – example – conclusive sentence (paraphrased idea from the topic sentence). If you have time and creative ability, try to add one more supportive sentence after the first supportive sentence – try to find one more sub-argument, and after this sub-argument you will place your example.
So, I am sure that using such a beaten and boring old pattern)) you will get a decent score at your IELTS, TOEFL, Duolingo, PTE, FCE and all other tests of English… This structure has been used by public speakers and writers for centuries, and it always yields a good outcome…
OK, the best way to absorb these ideas is to practice writing your essays and analyzing them with an experienced English tutor. I have been assisting students in achieving their goals at IELTS, TOEFL, Duolingo, FCE, CPE… for over 20 years – so I know tricks of the trade. Feel free to write me in WhatsApp, Viber: +380674985818 or visit the ENROLL page on this site and fill out the form there – I will respond in less than one day)
Feel good!)