Hello, my name's Tom and welcome back to my channel where I talk a little bit
about theatre, a little bit about being a PhD student and a little bit about those
two things crushed together. So, today, I wanted to add another episode to my
series of Essay Tips where I pull together some ideas and lessons
that I've learned from my short time trying to understand this world in the
hope of trying to help you avoid some of the many mistakes that I've made along
the way. Today, particularly, I wanted to focus on paragraph structure. It's
definitely something I've been thinking a lot about when I've been writing
recently and also something I've really been looking out for when I've been
looking over the essays of others and doing some marking. So, today, I'm gonna
give you five tips for trying to work your paragraph structure so that it's
really working for you.
Tip number one is something which might seem quite basic and yet I think is
something that is worth noting, and that is to decide what your paragraph is
going to be about. We divide essays and bits of text up into paragraphs for a
reason, and that's not just to make the essay a little bit easier on the eye.
when we're looking at it, but really hone our essay down into different sections
that are looking at different ideas. And that's exactly what paragraphs should be.
You should be looking at a very specific idea so, when you're thinking about your
essay structure as a whole, it's a really good idea to break down what each
paragraph is going to be about because it just allows you to communicate your
ideas with that real precision. The other outcome is that you end up with lots of
different paragraphs which seem quite vague and, actually, using your paragraphs
as very specific tools to communicate a particular part of the idea that you're
trying to express throughout the whole essay really allows you to be able to
communicate in a much clearer way and to be able to communicate much bigger ideas
in a really concise fashion. Tip number two is to really think about your paragraph
length. Now, there's no hard and fast rule about how long or short a paragraph
should be and, usually, we say it should be over three sentences so as to not be an
incredibly short amount of text or a very short idea being explained, however
it is really good to think about whether your paragraphs are either huge and long
and unwieldly and therefore aren't being used in their best capacity as those
very simple units but also to make sure that they're not too short which might
be a sign that you're not digging deep enough on the particular idea that
you're excavating within that particular paragraph. As I've said, there's no hard
and fast rule and it can be that for some purposes you might have a really
short or a particularly long paragraph. However, I'd aim to have a paragraph
between about three and six sentences. Tip number three is to really think
about those basics of paragraph structure. So, we quite often say that a
paragraph should begin with a topic sentence then have some explanatory
sentences and end with a concluding sentence that really wraps it up.
Essentially, what we're saying you should do is say what you're going to
say, then say it, then say what you've said. This structure allows you to begin
with a very simple statement, to then expand upon that statement and to bring
in some ideas from elsewhere, and then also just to wrap up that statement. The
internal structure of paragraphs is really, really useful and can just really
help you make sure again that you've got a really succinct paragraph which is
doing a particular function within your broader essay. Tip number four is to
think about how your paragraph relates to that one which came before it and the
one that comes after it. So, we might think that this is part of our broader
essay planning, whether it's gonna be an introductory paragraph or a concluding
paragraph or somewhere in the middle. But I also think that, when you're writing a
particular paragraph, it's really good to think about how it picks up the baton of
knowledge from the previous paragraph and passes it on to the next one.
Particularly, I like to think about paragraphs within an essay as being kind
of steps on a stairwell. So, for example, we can start with the reader potentially
having a little bit of knowledge about the thing we're talking about but not as
complex and detailed one as you, the author. And, therefore, by using paragraphs
as steps we can build up to be able to express those slightly more
complex ideas which, at the very beginning of the essay, we wouldn't be
able to do. One of our paragraphs as a step builds on the knowledge of the
previous paragraph and leads on to the knowledge that will be introduced in the
next paragraph. Finally, tip number five is to always end with you. And this is a
bit of advice that I've been given from multiple different people over the past
few years. Particularly, when we're writing at university level or above
we're often bringing in quotes or bits of evidence from data sets perhaps to
back up the things that we're saying. And, sometimes, I can often find myself
wanting to end a paragraph with a quote from someone else. But what this does is
it gives that scholar or academic that you're quoting the power
within that paragraph because it's them that's putting the full-stop on it. So,
I find a really good rule of thumb is to always try and end with a statement that
is written by yourself because that means that you will be
unpacking that quote a little bit more and therefore utilizing that quote or
piece of evidence to say the thing that you want to say rather than just
repeating it there as reportage. So, that's been a few short tips on how to
improve paragraph structure and, if you have any tips yourself, please do put
them down below in the comments so that anyone else who turns up here to watch
this video can can utilize those as well. If you've enjoyed this video then please
do give it a thumbs up or consider subscribing to my channel.
More broadly, I try to put out videos fairly regularly either on theory or on
essay tips and practically using knowledge in our work.
But, thank you very much for watching again, and have a great week.