Supporting Paragraphs

Supporting paragraphs provide support for the thesis of the essay.

The first sentence of each supporting paragraph should be a topic sentence, which provides the overall argument of the paragraph AND shows how the paragraph supports the thesis.

Once you write the topic sentence, which makes the key argument of the paragraph, you need to support that topic sentence.  You can support a topic sentence in several ways:

  • Provide a fact, or piece of data, that supports the topic sentence.  That fact does not just repeat the topic sentence but rather provides evidence to back up the idea in the topic sentence.

For example, if the topic sentence is:

Consuming too much caffeine can be harmful to your heart and cardiovascular system.

  • Provide an anecdote or example that illustrates how the topic sentence is true.

For example, if the topic sentence is:

Consuming too much caffeine can be harmful to your heart and cardiovascular system.

Skill: