Paragraph facts for kids

This fragment of a 5th-century Bible shows the text was paragraphed

A symbol sometimes used to show where a paragraph begins

A paragraph is a group of words put together to form a group that is usually longer than a sentence. Paragraphs are often made up of several sentences. There are usually between three and eight sentences. Paragraphs can begin with an indentation (about five spaces), or by missing a line out, and then starting again. This makes it easier to see when one paragraph ends and another begins.

In most organized forms of writing, such as essays, paragraphs contain a topic sentence . This topic sentence of the paragraph tells the reader what the paragraph will be about. Essays usually have multiple paragraphs that make claims to support a thesis statement, which is the central idea of the essay.

Paragraphs may signal when the writer changes topics. Each paragraph may have a number of sentences, depending on the topic.

A pilcrow mark (¶) is sometimes used to show where a paragraph begins.

Images for kids

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  Indented paragraphs demonstrated in the US Constitution

See also

In Spanish: Párrafo para niños