Structuring a Body Paragraph

Each body paragraph is going to have 3 main parts:

• Topic Sentence
• Details
• Closing Sentence

But what do each of these items look like in an academic essay? 

In this example, you can see the topic sentence, 4 detail sentences, and a closing sentence.

To know how to structure a body paragraph, you have to have a clear thesis statement.  The thesis will explain what will be argued in the whole paper.  Each of the body paragraphs will develop one little nugget of information to support the concept from the thesis.  For example, you could have a CAUSES essay that says this for the thesis:

My family has stopped celebrating traditional holidays because they cause anxiety, weight gain, and commercialism.

If this was the thesis statement for a CAUSES Essay, one would expect a body paragraph about holidays causing anxiety, one about how holidays cause weight gain, and one paragraph about how holidays cause commercialism.  Depending on how long the paper needs to be, the student may have to create 2 body paragraphs for each of these 'causes'.  However, the student could have a slightly less mapped-out thesis if he wanted to cover more than 3 points.

My family has stopped celebrating traditional holidays because they result in negative situations.

This thesis leaves more room for body paragraph development.

Anxiety

Weight gain

Commercialism

Greed

Travel situations

etc.

So how do you move from the thesis to the body paragraph construction?

TOPIC SENTENCE

The topic sentence will assert the main point for that paragraph.  It needs to serve as a FLAG for the audience.  They need to be able to read that sentence and know exactly how it relates to the thesis of the essay.  If you are writing a CAUSES essay, you need to indicate in the topic sentence something like...

Another reason holidays cause stress is that they focus on food.

This type of sentence clearly indicates that this paragraph will be about another reason holidays CAUSE the writer stress. The topic sentence has a transition word "another" to show the audience that a new point is going to be made in this body paragraph.

DETAILS

Once the topic sentence has been written, everything in that details section needs to provide support for that idea.

No matter what holiday you think of, there is always food involved.  Birthday parties have candy in pinatas, and there are cakes, cookies, and ice cream.  Thanksgiving has a bird 10 times larger than needed, 20 side dishes, and three types of desserts.  Christmas has chocolate gifts under the tree, special breakfast donuts or muffins, as well as excessive food contributions from everyone who comes to Christmas dinner.  Holiday celebrations revolve around the food.  This is a problem for me.  I struggle with portion control, and I have never had my weight at an appropriate number.  Food is a drug for me, and so I have to be very careful when in its presence.  

CLOSING SENTENCE

The last sentence of the paragraph needs to reflect back to the topic sentence and wrap up the idea being asserted in the paragraph.

Therefore, I emotionally struggle days before the event, worrying about (yet excited to see) the food that will pile into our home for the holiday.

This sentence reflects back to "holidays," "stress," and "food", but it also provides an ending to the idea by saying how it is not just the exact day but days before the event that causes stress for the writer.

Wrap Up

The content above is simply a brief example of what goes where in a basic paragraph.  It is not a topic you will probably write about, but it does show how to properly create the different sections required in a body paragraph.

For more details about how to add elaborative details to your body paragraphs, see the HAMBURGER METHOD article HERE.