The supporting details under each of those main ideas come from the capital-letter headings. The main ideas, which are building blocks of each section or each paragraph in your paper, come from the Roman-numeral headings in your outline. If you carefully organized your notes and made your outline, your ideas will fall into place naturally as you write your draft.

Likewise, arrange the sentences in each paragraph in a logical order. Logical OrderĪrrange the paragraphs in the body of your paper in an order that makes sense, so that each main idea follows logically from the previous one. In that case, you can make the sentences part of another paragraph or leave them out. Or, if you have trouble finding the main idea, maybe you don’t have one. Paragraph has only one or two sentences, you probably haven’t provided enough support for your main idea. A paragraph needs at least two or more sentences to be complete. And remember that a paragraph can’t contain just one sentence. Make sure you provide enough supporting details for all your ideas. SupportĪ paper that makes claims or states ideas without backing them up with facts or clarifying them with examples won’t mean much to readers.

If a sentence does not support the main idea of the paragraph, it is not relevant and should be left out. Just as every paragraph in your paper supports your thesis statement, every sentence in each paragraph supports the main idea of that paragraph by providing facts or examples that back up that main idea. That main idea is stated in a topic sentence, either at the beginning or somewhere else in the paragraph. If any paragraph in your paper does not, in some way, back up the main idea expressed in your thesis statement, it is not relevant, which means it doesn’t have a purpose and shouldn’t be there.Įach paragraph also has a main idea of its own. In the body, every single paragraph must support that main idea. You presented the main idea of your paper in the thesis statement. However, just as smooth transitions are required to connect your paragraphs, the sentences you write to present your evidence should possess transition words that connect ideas, focus attention on relevant information, and continue your discussion in a smooth and fluid manner. The topic of each paragraph will be supported by the evidence you itemized in your outline.

Concluding sentence that transitions to the next paragraph.

Supporting sentences including a discussion, quotations, or examples that support the topic sentence.Topic sentence (if not included in the first sentence).The third and fourth paragraphs follow the same format as the second:.The final sentence of the paragraph should provide a transition to the third paragraph of the paper where the second topic will be presented.Īcademic Writing, Editing, Proofreading, And Problem Solving Services The body of the paragraph should contain evidence, in the form of a discussion using quotations and examples, that supports or “proves” the topic. Often too, your first sentence will be your “topic sentence,” the sentence that presents the topic, point, or argument that will be presented in the paragraph. The first sentence of your body should continue the transition from the end of your introduction to present your first topic. Transition Phrases for Presenting Evidence.Organize your ideas in a logical order-one that makes sense-and provide enough details-facts and examples-to support the points you want to make. The main part of your research paper is called “the body.” To write this important part of your paper, include only relevant information, or information that gets to the point.

Rough draft example for research paper