What Is Paragraph?

The word paragraph has been derived from the Greek word paragraphos, meaning written beside, or to write beside. It describes a self-contained section, or unit, of a written discourse, dealing with particular ideas or points.

• Construction of a Paragraph

A paragraph can consist of a varying number of sentences. As a rule, students are taught to use a minimum of three to five sentences in a paragraph, but there are many examples of paragraphs consisting of a single sentence in published writing.

The beginning of a new paragraph is indicated by starting on a new line. There are, however, occasions when a symbol known as the pilcrow is used to mark the beginning of a paragraph. It is also possible to mark a new paragraph by indenting the first line.

• Purpose of a Paragraph

Any written work, whether it is a story or an essay, revolves around a concept, or an idea. The story will narrate an idea, whereas the essay will explain it. To assist the reader in understanding and enjoying it, this narration or explanation is divided into smaller units of text, the paragraphs.

In a story, the writer may use paragraphs to develop various characters, narrate an action or an event, describe a scene or advance the plot. All this is done to keep the reader entertained.

Within an essay, paragraphs are employed to demonstrate or explain various key points or thoughts relating to the main, or central, idea. Essays are written in this way in order to be informative and persuasive to the reader.

All paragraphs within a written work, fiction or non-fiction, serve to support and build on each other. As a result, they lead the reader from the very first idea through to the final conclusion, or resolution, of the written work.

The paragraph is one of several distinct subdivisions of a text intended to separate
ideas; the beginning is usually marked by a new indented line.

The paragraphis one or more sentences related togater olso that is deal with one topic or one thume