(Taken from an old handout; subject to revision)
Much of what we teach in writing classes is based on research into how readers make sense of what they read. The research shows that readers have strong subconscious expectations about where to find the important information in a sentence or paragraph. They aren’t conscious of these expectations, in the sense that if you asked them about these expectations, they wouldn’t realize they had them. But studies consistently show that there are specific places within sentences and paragraphs that readers tend to look for the meaning of a piece of writing. For that matter, the same applies to whole documents. In general, those places are towards the beginning and towards the end.
This handout focuses specifically on readers’ expectations regarding body paragraph structure rather than intros or conclusions. Research shows that most readers expect for a body paragraph to reveal the point or issue it will be focusing on within the first three sentences. This expectation is so strong, researchers have found, that readers will often assume that whatever appears in the first three sentences is meant to be the point or issue, even if that’s not what the writer intends. When readers encounter new claims or ideas in the middle of a body paragraph, they tend to get confused, even though they can’t consciously explain what the problem is. They tend to make comments like “the paragraph doesn’t flow well.” But research shows that the problem is due to where the writer located the information the reader needs in order to make sense of the paragraph.
Readers expect for a body paragraph to stay focused on the point or issue identified in the topic sentence (which they expect to appear within the first three sentences of the paragraph). They expect for the paragraph to develop the main idea, describe or analyze the issue, support the point with outside evidence or personal experience, and so on. They expect everything in the paragraph to relate back to the topic sentence. Again, this is not a conscious expectation. Readers generally can’t identify the problem; they just know that the paragraph seems “scattered” or “confusing.” That’s because the writer isn’t helping the reader to understand the point. It’s your job as a writer to help your reader as much as you can to understand what it is you’re trying to say.
If you start paying attention to body paragraphs in professional writing, you’ll notice that they tend to follow this kind of structure, but without being rigid or boring. The main principle is: when you start discussing a new issue, even if it’s a sub-issue of a larger point, start a new paragraph. Body paragraphs can be as short as a few sentences, provided they adequately support or develop their issue, and they can be as long as about one full page, double-spaced. Any longer than that, however, and readers find it harder to concentrate on them.
