What constitutes a good paragraph?
Student sheet
Read texts A–F and discuss the following questions:
1. Where might each paragraph be from? Give reasons for your answers.
2. Rank the six paragraphs in order of how good they are as paragraphs. Give reasons for your
answers.
A.
David has long hair. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. The kettle is blue, but it has a pink lid. It
is next to my desk. Mexican food is very spicy. A beer costs around three dollars. My desk is rather
untidy. There are lots of papers on it. I almost never use white-out.
B.
This report will study the extent to which wider reading in English is prevalent among ESL learners in
two countries, South Korea and Japan. In South Korea, students aged 11–17 years old were studied
and it was found that wider reading is indeed prevalent, particularly among high-achieving students. It
can be concluded from this that young South Koreans are assimilating themselves with global
discourse culture. Furthermore, in Japan, students aged 11–15 were also found to be engaging in
wider reading, leading to the same conclusions being drawn.
C.
Walter is a simple man. He is 45 years old. He lives in a small flat on his own. He quite likes his job.
He works in an office. Walter likes meeting his friends. He likes talking about many different things,
especially sports and politics. Walter likes reading and knows a lot. He goes the pub quite often to
drink beer.
D.
There are many interesting Buddhist temples to visit in Bangkok. Wat Pho stands right in the city
centre and is easily accessible from the main tourist district of Sukumvit Road. Wat Phra Siew is the
most sacred Buddhist temple in the whole of Thailand and is located within the grounds of the Grand
Palace. Lastly, Wat Arun, easily one of the most beautiful temples around, can be reached by taking a
ferry across the river Chao Phraya. This one is highly recommended.
E.
I think that autumn is my favourite season of the year. I love the beautiful colours of the leaves and
how they turn from green to different shades of gold, yellow and red. I also enjoy kicking dry leaves
on the ground. I also like the comfortable temperatures during autumn, not too hot like summer, but
not too cold like winter.
F.
Almaty is the biggest, most important city in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan has many cities, of which
Almaty is the most important, as well as the biggest. In fact, it is an irrefutable fact that within the
context of Kazakhstan, Almaty is a very big and important city. Anyone who tried to deny that fact that
it is the biggest most important city in Kazakhstan would be would be entirely wrong.
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What constitutes a good paragraph?
Teaching notes
This exercise is designed to raise awareness of what constitutes a good paragraph.
Age: 16+
Level: intermediate/upper-intermediate (B1/B2)
Timing: 30 minutes
Although the texts are not authentic (i.e. they were specifically written for the purpose of this exercise),
most of them can be identified as belonging to a particular genre.
You might want to cut the paragraphs into strips to make it easier for students to rank them.
Suggested answers
The precise ranking of the paragraphs is open to debate, but a suggested answer is:
D; B; E; F/C; C/F; A.
A.
It is not clear where this paragraph is from. It is completely incoherent and is probably the worst
paragraph. In a good paragraph it is reasonably easy to identify the main idea (or topic). This is not
the case here.
B.
This is supposed to be from some sort of research study. It is a good paragraph, but the information
in it is too broad. In a real research study the results from South Korea and Japan would be
summarised in separate paragraphs.
C.
This is supposed to be from a coursebook for students learning English as a foreign language. It is a
coherent paragraph with an easily identifiable subject. However, the subject is repeated over and over
again making it more like a list of sentences than a real paragraph.
D.
This is supposed to be from some sort of guidebook about Bangkok. This is probably the best
paragraph. It is coherent, has a clear subject and is neither too narrow nor too broad.
E.
This is supposed to be from a student’s writing task. It is fairly good, as it is coherent and has a clear
subject. However, the pronoun ‘I’ is repeated several times, making it seem more like a list of
sentences than a cohesive paragraph.
F.
This is supposed to be from an internet/guidebook article about the city of Almaty. The paragraph is
cohesive, but the information is far too narrow, as it is basically the same idea repeated again and
again.
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