When should I change paragraph?
Roughly every five or six lines as a guide, you should start a new paragraph. This means about the length of your thumb.
How to use paragraphs:
Each paragraph should be about a strong, separate idea. If you’re finding it hard to figure out when to change paragraphs, it might be because your ideas aren’t strong enough or clearly separated enough. When you start a paragraph, get a clear idea in your head what it is about.
How should I show paragraphs
If you’re writing by hand in class or exams, indent by the width of your thumb. Like the paragraph I’ve just written here. Don’t leave a line break. It wastes paper.
If you’re typing a story, you should still indent. It makes punctuating dialogue a lot easier, which is why novels use this format.
How to paragraph stories:
For example, for a story about a cat:
- When the character first enters a room, describe why they went in and how it makes them feel.
- When the cat jumps on their head, how do they react?
- What the cat does next.
How to paragraph essays
Each paragraph should start with a strong statement which you will then explore. This is called a thesis statement. Each statement should be a strong, separate way of exploring the question. For example:
What do we learn about loneliness in Of Mice and Men?
- Of Mice and Men shows the lonely world of migrant workers during the Great Depression.
- Curley’s wife is married, and surrounded by men, but is still desperately lonely.
- George and Lennie stand out because they are the only characters who aren’t lonely.
The names are different, but each of the above includes:
- statement or point;
- quotation or evidence;
- analysis, explanation or interpretation.
Paragraphs should link to the bullet points you made in your plan. If you’re writing about a character, these might be:
- The way other people react to a character.
- How the character acts, looks and behaves.
- How the character links to the main ideas or themes in the book.
In exams:
Put paragraphs in fast by using the rule of thumb. Where you want to ‘add’ the new paragraph, insert two long slashes after a full stop, like this //
To show your skills, sometimes you may like to use very, very short paragraphs for dramatic effect. This can be a sentence.
Or fragment.
Like this.