Want to know how to structure a paragraph effectively? This incredible paragraph-writing technique will transform your essays in English and humanities especially!
Knowing how to structure a paragraph is the cornerstone of your schoolwork after Year 7, and knowing an effective structure will boost your grades massively.
To be honest, though people always think that paragraph-writing is a huge challenge, but it’s incredibly simple when you know this top tip. All my students have used it to ace their exams.
This article details the method I used through GCSEs, A levels, a degree in English Literature and History, and then a Masters, and it saved me SO much time and stress! Hopefully, they can help you too.
This article is all about how to structure a paragraph.
How to Structure a Paragraph
The PEE structure
The PEE structure is my framework for writing clear paragraphs in every essay. Here’s what it stands for:
P
E
E
Point
Evidence
Explain
Here’s what that looks like in practice.
P
E
E
Another key aspect of the Treaty of Versailles to cause tension was the so-called ‘War Guilt clause’,
Article 231.
This placed the blame for WWI entirely on Germany, justifying reparations and fostering great anger amongst German citizens, who believed they had been ‘stabbed in the back’ by their leaders.
Of course, you should write these in a fluid paragraph rather than separating them out!
From this point on, all you have to do is repeat this structure with a new piece of evidence, and you have a strong essay structure. You don’t always have to have a Point, and often I wouldn’t recommend it – so a majority of your paragraph will be ‘EE’.
English Paragraph Writing Tips
The PETE structure is my slightly-modified version of PEE that I use for English essays. Here’s what it is short for:
P
E
T
E
Point
Evidence
Technique
Effect
As you can see, I have added a ‘T’, for technique, and expanded on the second ‘E’ (now ‘effect’ rather than ‘explain’). The reason for this that it ensures you are analysing a quote or idea rather than simply explaining its meaning. These are two very different things! Including a technique will help ensure you are always analysing how the writer achieves their goals rather than simply describing what these goals are. Here’s an example of this:
P
E
T
E
Early in the play, Shakespeare presents Macbeth as a stereotypical hero,
describing him as ‘brave Macbeth’.
This epithet
ensures the audience’s first impression of Macbeth is overwhelmingly positive, thus increasing the shock when his dark plans are revealed.
Again, you don’t always need a Point and often repeated ‘ETE’ structures are better. You don’t always need a technique, but as I have mentioned above it is highly recommended! Even something has simple as a short sentence or connotation is fine.
How to Begin and End a Paragraph
Now you have some idea about structuring the meat of a paragraph, the next step is to figure out how to effectively begin and end a paragraph. The key thing to remember here is that each paragraph should work like a mini-essay in itself, beginning with an introductory sentence and finishing with a concluding sentence.
Both your introductory sentence and your concluding sentence should clearly reference both the given question and the topic of your paragraph. If you’d like some more advice on this, have a read of this article, where I go into a deep dive on planning your essay.
The (very brief!!) gist of it, however, is that each paragraph should have a clear focus. Here’s an example of how I would do this for an English essay with the question ‘How does Shakespeare present the character of Macbeth?‘
Here are the three paragraphs I would plan in response to this question, as well as a few quotes I might discuss. Please note that this isn’t a complete essay plan – it’s missing context and doesn’t have enough quotes. For a more detail essay plan, see the article linked above!
1. Honourable soldier
‘brave Macbeth’
‘noble Macbeth’
‘unseamed him’
‘vaulting ambition’
2. Violent murderer
‘black and deep desires’
‘will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?’
‘full of scorpions is my mind’
3. Nihilistic and regretful
‘tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow’
‘life’s but a walking shadow’
‘a tale told by an idiot’
A few examples…
And here’s an example of how I would take each of these and make a solid introductory sentence and concluding sentence.
In the beginning of the play, Shakespeare presents Macbeth as an honourable soldier.
This suggests that the view of Macbeth as an honourable soldier is alreadysomewhat undermined by Shakespeare‘s emphasis of the character’s violence.
After Macbeth murders Duncan, Shakespeare explores the violent, murderous side of him further.
This suggests that the murder of Duncan has allowed Macbeth to lose his inhibitions and become a violent murderer.
In the final scenes of the play, Shakespeare suggests that Macbeth begins to realise his mistakes, becoming nihilisitc and mildly regretful as a result.
This suggests that Macbeth begins to regret his actions at the end of the play and realises that everything he has done was futile.
Lilac represents where I have referenced the character or theme given in the question.
Light blue represents where I have referenced the playwright.
Red, dark blue and green represent my topics for each paragraph – note how I repeat them in the introductory and concluding sentence to ensure a tight, clear focus.
The ability to effectively start and finish a paragraph is a hugely underrated part of writing an essay – if you can replicate this skill in your writing, your marks will jump significantly. After you have mastered this skill, it really is as simple as introductory sentence, PEE, PEE, PEE, PEE, concluding sentence and you have written a fantastic paragraph!!
This article was all about how to structure a paragraph.
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