Writing Great Paragraphs for Standardized Tests

Now that standardized tests often include writing samples, many families are working to build their students writing skills. So many parents get confused however when faced with instructions like: "Avoid unnecessary details." 

What does that mean? Who is to say what is necessary or not? I had an "aha" moment where I better understood this when I saw this table put together by the Time4Writing people about the secrets of writing successful paragraphs.

Writing paragraphs is the foundation of all essay writing, whether you’re writing in the expository, persuasive, narrative, or creative form. In order to write a good paragraph, you need to understand the four essential elements of paragraph writing and how each element contributes to the whole. At Time4Writing, we help students build writing skills by focusing on the fundamentals. And nothing is more fundamental than writing a paragraph.



The following example illustrates the importance of the elements of unity, order, coherency, and completeness in paragraph writing, all of which are reinforced in writing courses taught by Time4Writing. 
Definitely click through to see their table!