1. The first sentence of every paragraph should concurrently: grab the reader’s attention and make the rest of the paragraph stronger.
In most cases, this means starting your paragraph with the main idea, and following it with supporting ideas. For example, if you state an abstract thought in your first sentence, you can follow it with examples that make the thought more concrete. If you state a simple opinion in your first sentence, you can follow it with explanations that make the opinion more nuanced. If you give your reader a command in your first sentence, you can follow it with reasons that make the command more appealing. If you establish a setting in your first sentence, you can follow it with details that make the setting more meaningful. Basically, anything (interesting) that can be elaborated on would work as a good first sentence.
1.1 In scholastic essays, the first paragraph is where you state the main point you will prove throughout your essay. In creative writing though, the first paragraph has more flexibility: you can use it to characterize someone important, set a mood, ask a question or give an opinion that you’ll qualify or contradict later. Regardless of the essay type, the same principle applies: the first paragraph should draw in your reader, so that they continue reading.
2. The last sentence of every paragraph should leave an impression on the reader.
After you explain a main idea, there are strong things you can say about it that you couldn’t before. You can emphasize its significance, extend its application or attack the character of people who don’t believe it. Anything that is a take-away of your main idea and its supporting ideas would work as a good last sentence.
Note: Sometimes, you don’t see the main idea of a paragraph until the last sentence. Every sentence before it are supporting ideas that set up the main idea; so when the author finally concludes with it, the idea is fresh, and thus stronger.
2.1 In scholastic essays, the last paragraph is where you sum up your main point and explain its significance. In creative writing, you can end with paragraphs that show how a character or situation changed, answer a question you set up earlier or give a surprise that acts as a cliff hanger for the next essay. A good last paragraph should show the importance of everything that was said in the essay.
3. For the most part, each sentence and paragraph should elaborate or give meaning to the one before it. This isn’t absolutely necessary, but it would make it easier for your reader to maintain focus.
4. Every paragraph should make one point, no more.
In creative essays, a paragraph can be as short as you like. Whether it’s 50 sentences or 2 words, as long as the thoughts work to make one point, it qualifies as a paragraph.
5. I’m not a fan of repetitive paragraphs, but certain writers, for some ungodly reason, are.
If you would like to make the same point in multiple paragraphs, it’s best to order them the right way. Put weaker paragraphs before stronger ones so that your reader doesn’t get bored.
6. If you can drop a detail early in your essay, and that detail becomes part of the main idea of a later paragraph, you will look clever. Try to foreshadow future points this way when you can.
7. You can’t state a thought-out conclusion upfront. You have to build toward it.
One of the most pivotal moments I had as a writer is when I learned about how the Greeks used ethos, logos and pathos. They usually started speeches with characterizations (ethos), followed it with elaborations (logos), and finally ended them with significance (pathos).
I realized that this ethos-logos-pathos pattern is found everywhere:
Every form of communication requires us to first characterize and elaborate, and only then can we talk about significance. In our sentences, our paragraphs, our overall essays, our debates, our movies, our commercials, you name it: we can’t start with the points we’re trying to make. We have to build toward them.
#. I hope you understand that a goal of this site is to promote my books. So instead of giving you example paragraphs here, I ask you to buy my book, Quick Epiphany, and analyze my paragraphs there on your own. If you don’t want to do that, you can still check out anybody else’s essay, and study their paragraphs instead. Note where these principles made their writing more effective.
1. Explaining an idea using a ton of words (for the sake of clarity) isn’t fun. But there’s an upside: after explaining something thoroughly, you can refer to it later more easily. For example, if you spend a paragraph explaining what cognitive dissonance is (cognitive dissonance is the discomfort that comes from having two opposing beliefs), you can then talk about how humans deal with cognitive dissonance in a later paragraph, without re-explaining what it is. You can just say “cognitive dissonance” and your reader will understand.
2. There’s something called the “curse of knowledge”, where a writer knows so much about his subject matter, that he often forgets how little his readers know. So he writes, oblivious of how unclear his writing is.
Whenever you talk about something your audience doesn’t know, you have to go a bit slow. If you want to talk about the effects of an obscure philosophy, you have to explain what the philosophy is first. If you want to casually use a jargon word, you have to define the jargon word first. If you want to convince people about a controversial opinion, you have to give counterarguments to the controversy first. If you assume your audience knows something they don’t, they will get bored, maybe even annoyed.
3. Whenever you have a metaphor/argument/explanation for something, try to make it feel “complete”. Blatantly leaving out details can hurt your image. If your audience senses that you should explore something, but you don’t, you will come off as a lazy writer.
4. Don’t mix metaphors or arguments in the same paragraph. It can get convoluted, thus confusing your reader.
1. When you’re writing to people who disagree with you, instead of having a shouting match, it would be considerate to address your opponents’ arguments. Concede where they’re right before you point out where they’re wrong. If you’re a decent person when arguing, there’s a chance your opponents will actually listen to you, or better yet: they could end up agreeing.
2. How you write should always be determined by your audience. However, there are times where you will have to write to a diverse audience, or will have to write to an audience whose personalities you’re not sure of. Not knowing your audience will make communicating difficult. You will not know what controversies are okay to bring up, what values are okay to offend, what terms are understood and what issues are boring. Aside from researching your audience, there is no solution to this problem. Just be genuine, and hope for the best.
3. If you want your writing to stand out, you should try to say things in a unique way. Try to use different vocabulary, come up with different analogies, say things with different tones and characterize in different ways. If you experiment and practice enough, your writing will eventually develop a voice that’s unique to you.
If you want more resources for writing, check out my first two books: The Five Elements of Humor and Hybrid.
The Five Elements of Humor is a list of 100 joke techniques, with accompanying examples. Whenever you want to write a joke about a given situation, you can use these techniques as a guide.
Hybrid is a vocabulary list organized into word groups. The organization makes the words easier to memorize. In addition, I chose words that aren’t too formal or obscure; so it’s a great book for anybody who wants to experiment with their vocabulary.
If you want to see my actual skills, I suggest buying my third book: Quick Epiphany. It has 500 aphorisms, 50 musings and 5 essays of wisdom. All the content is original, and I hope every day that Quick Epiphany establishes me as one of the best writers in the world.
If you don’t want to help me out, feel free to continue browsing this site. Maybe I’ll win you over later.
As always, thanks for reading,
Zac Toa