Dear Dr. Zack,

I teach an advanced ESL Writing Class and I will be introducing the topic of Paragraph Writing to my ESL Students. Could you explain the different types of Written Paragraph structures so I can present this information in a clear manner to my students?

Thanks,

Helen

Dear Helen,

Thank you for your question. First of all, when teaching students how to write a paragraph, it is important that they understand that their writing must be clear for the reader. Also, their paragraph must have a topic sentence that states the main idea of the paragraph, as well as supporting details to back up and reinforce the topic sentence.

Here is a brief explanation of the different types of Paragraphs:

Descriptive Paragraphs- Paragraphs written to appeal to the senses and use descriptive images, metaphors, adjectives, adverbs and idioms that appeal to the five different senses.

Narrative Paragraphs- Paragraphs written in the form of a story that tell the reader what happened or what is happening at that time.

Comparison-Contrast Paragraphs- Paragraphs written that point out the similarities and differences in a side-by-side manner.

Cause and Effect Paragraphs- Paragraphs written that describe a specific event and then analyze how and why that event happened.

Dr. Yanni Zack