In academic writing, a paragraph is a logically organised set of sentences dealing with a single point. Paragraphs are sometimes referred to as the ‘building blocks’ of the academic essay. If we think of introductions and conclusions as the bookends of the essay, we could imagine paragraphs as the volumes held between them. Each paragraph (volume) contains a focused exploration of a single topic. Each paragraph should also be linked to the ones before and after, so we could think of our volumes as part of a single series.

Imagine you are writing an essay about what makes great biscuits. Your structure might look like this:

A diagram showing five sections of an essay. At the beginning and ends, smaller triangles depict bookends for the introduction and conclusion. Inbetween these bookmarks, three rectangles depict three volumes: size, shape and taste (example topics).

Within each of your paragraphs (size, shape, and taste), there is no set way to organise your ideas, but there are key features that should be included:

Point	One main point, introduced by a topic sentence
Evidence	Back up your point with evidence from sources
Explanation	Say how this evidence backs up your point
Link	Connect your points to create logical flow