Developing Paragraphs: A Fill-in-the-Blank Outline

Professor Hartley • Ohio University

The purpose of this page is to give you a handy formula for creating a well-developed paragraph from a simple topic statement and quotation. In order to develop these initial statements, you must apply certain actions or strategies that will help you flesh out the details of your concept.

One way to set these strategies in motion is to begin each new sentence with one of the transitions from the list below to support your initial claim. On the other hand, including contrasting transitions will help you to develop a fairer, more rounded-out argument than simply writing sentences that restate your main idea. With six or seven such transitional sentences added to your topic sentence and quotation, you are well on your way to writing a complex paragraph and, ultimately, a well-developed essay as a whole.

Actions (developing ideas):

Analyze, Argue, Classify, Compare, Contrast, Define, Demonstrate, Describe, Elaborate, Exemplify, Explain, Illustrate, Narrate, Summarize, Support

Transitions (showing relationships):

Above all, After all, Again, All in all, Also, Alternatively, Although, Aside from, At first, Because, Briefly, By and large, By the same token, By the way, Comparatively, Especially, Excluding, Finally, First of all, For example, For instance, Generally, Hence, However, In addition, In any case, In any event, In brief, In conclusion, In essence, In other words, In particular, In short, In some cases . . . , In the final analysis, In the long run, In the meantime, Including, Likewise, Meanwhile, Moreover, Namely, Nevertheless, On the other hand, One way, Ordinarily, Other than, Particularly, Regardless, Similarly, Simultaneously, Subsequently, That is to say, Therefore, To summarize, Whereas, While

Template

So here is an outline for developing a nine-sentence paragraph with each sentence beginning with the transitions indicated:

1. Topic Statement
2. Key Quotation
3. Explanation
4. Transition 1 (your choice)
5. Transition 2 (your choice again)
6. Transition 3: On the one hand,
7. Transition 4: On the other hand,
8. Transition 5: Nevertheless,
9. Transition 6: In conclusion, . . .

While you would not really want to write an essay in which every sentence begins with a transition, this outlining process at least gives you a well-developed rough draft that you can then reshape through employing various sentence formations. One such variation would be embedding the transition in the middle of a sentence at an appropriate breaking point, such as: “Some sentences, on the other hand, might have the transitions appearing midstream.”