Lesson Objectives
In this lesson, you’ll learn:
- the types of paragraphs commonly used in STEM writing
- the purpose and key features of each paragraph type
- how to identify each paragraph type
Academic Paragraphs in STEM Writing
Writing academically is not just about using technical language—it’s also about structuring your ideas in a clear and logical way. Choosing the best paragraph structure for your needs is crucial to making your writing both effective and easy to follow.
In academic STEM writing, there are several common paragraph types, including:
- Argumentative
- Descriptive
- Definition
- Cause and Effect
- Compare and Contrast
- Process
- Problem – Solution
Each of these paragraph types serves a different purpose and follows a different structure. However, they all have one important feature in common: each paragraph should focus on a single main idea. Maintaining this focus helps create clear and readable writing—an essential consideration when communicating complex ideas.
Task 1
Task 2
Now that you’ve got a better idea of the purpose and key features of each of these common paragraph types, it’s time to try and identify them.
Ask Yourself:
- What are the features of each of the paragraphs that helped you identify them?
- Which type of paragraph do you think is most common in your discipline? Why?
- How do the sentence structures and linking words differ between paragraph types? Can you find any patterns?
- In which section of a research paper would each paragraph type most likely be found? Why?
