Practice materials to improve your writing

Paragraph structure

Your feedback says:

PARAGRAPH - your paragraph is not well constructed. For example, it may be too long or too short. It may have too many controlling ideas, or it may need a controlling idea. There may not be supporting sentences, or they may not relate well to the controlling idea. Or the ideas may not be in an acceptable order.

So what’s the problem? And what do you need to do?

Study model paragraphs for English academic writing and apply the structures to your own paragraphs to meet your readers' expectations.

Here are some links to practise materials:

On this site:

• A model paragraph

• Common mistakes in paragraph structure

• Building a paragraph

On other sites:

• Basic Paragraph Structure

• Paragraph and sentence structure

• Cause and Effect Paragraphs

• Comparison and Contrast Paragraphs

• Ordering sentences in a paragraph

• Effective paragraph organisation - exercises

• Coherence and Unity

• Coherence and Unity - part b

• Paragraph structure: unity, focus and development

If you find more useful exercises for any type of error, please let us know and we will add the links. Visit www.ngberger.com for other materials that may help you on your pre-sessional course or other studies in academic or business English.

Please send your comments to Norbert G. Berger. This document was updated 03/08/2003.

Error Typology - © English Language Centre, University of Exeter, UK. 2003.

For use within educational institutions as part of IT-assisted teaching provision only. If used outside the Universities of Exeter (UK) and Graz (Austria), acknowledgement must be made to the English Language Centre, University of Exeter. Not to be reproduced in a different medium or modified without permission.