Hi there! You do know that right now digital communication dominates and student writing increasingly reflects social media patterns, don’t you? This is a pertinent reason to pay attention to the fundamentals of paragraph development. In this article, I present you with practical strategies for improving your own writing. I’ll begin by exploring the need for us to understand modern paragraph development.
Recent studies from the Journal of Academic Writing show that 65% of undergraduate papers suffer from poor paragraph coherence, while 73% of graduate students struggle with evidence integration. As educators, our role in addressing these challenges is twofold: modelling excellent writing and providing clear assessment frameworks.
What can we consider as the architecture of effective paragraphs? You may have been taught the need to always have a topic sentence in your paragraph. This is quite correct; however, there is a need for innovation in this regard. This is because modern academic writing has evolved beyond traditional topic sentence structures. Consider incorporating in your paragraph setup bridging sentences that connect multiple concepts; question-based openers that engage critical thinking (I can’t emphasise this enough!); and delayed topic sentences for narrative impact.
About bridging sentences that connect multiple concepts – don’t get me wrong; this is in no way promoting multiple ideas in one paragraph; rather, it is the syncing of related ideas using a sentence. It helps to situate the point of the discourse. The following example might help you get the point: “Social media’s influence on political discourse has done nothing more than combine traditional propaganda techniques with algorithmic manipulation, fundamentally altering how democracy functions.” Can you count how many concepts are connected here? And can you figure out how the sentence helps one to effectively convey the point? It is that social media has altered how democracy functions; however, the sentence does more by stating how social media has done it.
About using question-based openers to ginger critical thinking, reflect on an example such as this: “If language shapes reality, how do emoji and digital communication transform our cognitive processes?” Remember, this kind of conceptual bridge gets your readers thinking critically because it does not elicit a simple yes or no response. When you begin your questions with ‘how’ and ‘what if’, you get more reader engagement than when you use traditional openers.
About delayed topic sentences for narrative impact, readers might recall information faster after reading through the narrative and getting to the topic sentence. Consider the following example that shows delayed topic sentence: “The streets of Lagos buzzed with smartphones and digital transactions. Market women consulted exchange rates on apps, while teenagers created TikTok content between sales. This digital transformation of informal economies represents Nigeria’s silent financial revolution.” Did you sense how the narrative first told leads on beautifully to the topic sentence that highlights the essence of the paragraph? You can’t help but remember the point!
Traditionally, the emphasis has also been on integrating evidence by means of supporting sentences. Those sentences would have to match the topic sentence to justify it. Considering the digital age with its plethora of information, selecting and integrating evidence require new skills. If you have to source information from the internet, you should be able to evaluate it to ascertain its authenticity and credibility. There is also the aspect of incorporating multi-modal evidence in paragraphs. You would need to know how to do that. Some have even gone a step further to integrate data visualisation to make the figures in their work to stand out. What’s the point? While the traditional structure is fine, we need to consider the realities of our time and add other kinds of evidence required to consolidate the points we make.
Another aspect worth considering is that of transition markers. Modern transition techniques are a notch higher. In contemporary academic writing, you can employ sophisticated transitions that are not limited to only linking words. You may want to consider, in addition to logical and verbal bridges, conceptual bridges, visual transitions through formatting, digital-friendly paragraph breaks, and thought progression markers. What do these mean for your paragraph writing?
First, conceptual bridges – in academic writing, you may want to deploy varied kinds including the echo bridge, the question-answer bridge, contrast-highlight bridge, metaphor extension bridge, and time-space bridge. I’ll take them one at a time. In the traditional mode, a sentence could read thus: “This policy failed.” However, if we apply the echo bridge to this, we would have the sentence that increases a reader’s comprehension: “This policy failure echoes similar outcomes in developing economies …” So we make the bridge echo something related to the point made.
The question-answer bridge, on the other hand, increases your reader engagement. Instead of a traditional ‘Let’s examine the next point’, we could ask a question: “What does this mean for developing nations? The evidence suggests …” See the difference? Your audience’s interest is piqued.
The contrast-highlight bridge works because it helps your readers improve their information retention. Rather than the usual “Now let’s look at something different, we could while contrasting, highlight the point of note: “While Western economies struggled with inflation, African markets demonstrated remarkable resilience …” Putting the points side by side using a contrast-highlight bridge accentuates retention of the information shared.
Have you considered using a metaphor as a bridge? This is a powerful way to increase concept understanding. Do not just write, ‘Moving to the next topic …’ Write instead, “Like a disease that eats up a terminally ill patient, these illusionary policies …” Word pictures go a long way with retention.
To improve logical flow, consider using the time-space bridge and not just a linking word like ‘next’. Show what the ‘next’ is by using spatial-temporal bridges. For example, “As we shift our focus from global trends to local implementations …” Did you notice the two concepts described in the example? Always show the correlation between or among concepts, and show how they are related in terms of time.