Paragraphs to organise ideas
English · Key Stage 2 · The School
One idea, one paragraph
A PARAGRAPH is a group of sentences about ONE idea. When the idea changes, start a new paragraph. It is not about how much you have written — it is about whether the topic has changed, even if that happens after just two sentences rather than a full page.
Signals for a new paragraph
Start a new paragraph for a new time ("Later that day..."), a new place ("Back at the house..."), a new idea, or a new speaker in a conversation. Each of these is a signal that what comes next needs its own space, separate from what came before it.
Why it helps the reader
Paragraphs give a reader a break, and a clue about what is coming. A wall of text with no breaks is exhausting to read, even if every sentence makes sense on its own. Paragraphs are a favour to the reader, not just a rule to follow, and a good writer thinks about the favour, not just the rule, every time they start a new one.
Read one long block of writing about a school trip: leaving school, the coach journey, arriving at the museum, looking at the dinosaurs, eating lunch, coming home. That is really SIX ideas run together. Split it into paragraphs: one for leaving and the journey, one for arriving and the museum, one for lunch, one for coming home. Four paragraphs, each about one part of the day. The story did not change. But it became far easier to follow. A reader could now stop after any paragraph and know exactly where they had got to.