Clear Paragraph Writing

Writers can make their writing clear and organized by including the following:

Topic Sentence:  This is a sentence that introduces a topic and focus of the paragraph.  Usually there is one topic sentences, but sometimes writers use more than one.  Topic sentences can be very broad or very specific.

Main Ideas:  These are sentences that contain the new and most important ideas in the paragraph.  Strong paragraphs have 3 or more main ideas.

Supporting Details: These are the smaller examples, descriptions, facts, etc. that help to explain the main ideas.

Organizing Words and Phrases:  These words point to the main ideas in the paragraph.  They are optional, but they do help readers focus on the main points.

Closing or Conclusion Sentences:  It is very helpful to restate your main idea in a final conclusion sentence at the end of the paragraph.

Here's an example:

There are three important characteristics about good leaders.  The first one is good leaders care about their country and people more than anything like money or power.  The second one is good leaders respect and treat all people the same way without any discrimination and give the same job opportunities to everybody.  The third one is a good leader makes their country a better place to live by making job opportunities, good education and better health care for everybody.  In my opinion, these are the most important characteristics that good leaders have.