ESL Writing Tips - Paragraph Structuring

I've been working on some writing materials for a course I am supposed to be teaching next week, so I thought I would get the ball rolling by making a post about basic paragraph structuring.

What is a paragraph?

The most basic thing to learn when tackling writing a paragraph is to understand the relationship between the components and understand the definition of a paragraph. Our end result is the paragraph but before that we must have some sentences, those sentences are made up of words, those words come from ideas, and hopefully our ideas have a theme or topic. To sum up a paragraph is a bunch of words on on topic organised into a series of sentences. Simple right? 

What are the parts of a paragraph?

So glad I asked because I have a picture just for this:

So Informative

Many learners do not pay close enough attention to the impact that a good topic sentence can have. In order to have a good topic sentence you must ensure that you have indeed made a logical sentence. Stop laughing this is a serious mistake! Your topic sentence must also be general enough that it leaves room for discussion but specific enough that it can spark a discussion. Take the following examples.

Comic books are good.  - bad topic as it is too general.

A comic book costs exactly $3.99. - bad topic as it is too specific.

Comic books good read. - bad topic as it is not a full/correct sentence.

The market for comic books has declined due to a variety of factors. - OK topic sentence.

Tablet computers have allowed people on the go to interact with each other effectively. - OK topic sentence.

Support sentences are generally easier for learners to grasp; however one small problem they have is that they forget to relate them back to the topic. Let's grab a topic sentence and make some supporting sentences.

The market for comic books has declined due to a variety of factors.

In recent times, numerous comic publishers have gone out of business. - OK support sentence

An increase in average prices of comics has made them inaccessible to much of their target audience. - OK support sentence.

I love spiderman because he does whatever a spider can - bad support sentence (it may be true but it has no relation to the topic)

Concluding sentences are not always necessary depending on the style of writing you are using, but we'll cover them so we have a nice package. The concluding sentence restates the info from the topic sentence in different wording. The writer may also wish to make a judgement/opinion/prediction on the topic. Let's make an example, shall we?

Despite a decline in the size of the comic book market, with some work this industry can survive in the future. - restatement with a prediction

Put it all together

To sum up, pay attention to the structure and the components of the paragraph. Mastery of these two factors will greatly improve anyone's writing! What are you all waiting for? Go write some paragraphs!