The Paragraph — P.E.E.L.
Understand that the cohesion of texts relies on devices that signal structure and guide readers, such as overviews and initial and concluding paragraphs.
Every essay you will ever write is made of paragraphs. Get the paragraph right and the essay mostly builds itself. There are four parts, and they always come in the same order.
Builds onYr 7 · Inference — P.E.E.
Method
One paragraph, one idea
If you cannot say what a paragraph is about in one short sentence, it is holding two ideas. Split it.
The first sentence is a promise
The topic sentence tells the reader what the paragraph will prove. The rest of the paragraph keeps that promise.
Explaining is longer than proving
Your evidence might be six words. Your explanation should be two or three sentences.
Worked example
e.g. Write one paragraph arguing that homework should be limited to thirty minutes a night.
- P — Point. One sentence saying what this paragraph will prove.Long homework does not improve results.
- E — Evidence. A fact, an example or a quotation.Students in Finland are set less homework than almost anywhere, and read better than almost anywhere.
- E — Explain. Say why the evidence proves the point. Two or three sentences.If more homework caused better results, the country with the least would not be near the top. That suggests what matters is the quality of the work, not the hours.
- L — Link. One sentence pointing to the next paragraph.The cost of those extra hours is felt somewhere else.
- Read the topic sentence and the last sentence together. They should still make sense.If they do not, the paragraph has drifted.
Practice
Find the missing part in each one.
1
Homework is bad. In Finland they get less homework. So homework should be limited. Which part is missing?
AnswerThe Explain. The evidence is dropped in and never unpacked. Add why Finland's results show that hours are not what matters.
2
A paragraph starts Another thing is that students get tired, and also sport is important, and teachers have to mark it all. What is wrong?
AnswerIt holds three ideas. Each needs its own paragraph, each with its own point sentence.
3
Why does the topic sentence come first rather than building to it?
AnswerA reader needs to know what they are being shown before they are shown it. Building to the point works in a story, not in an argument.
4
What is the link sentence for?
AnswerIt stops the essay reading as a list. It carries the reader from one idea to the next, so the argument feels like one piece of thinking.