Elements of a paragraph. To be as effective as possible, a paragraph should contain each of the
following in order: argument/claim, evidence/proof, and summary. When writing a paragraph you should
bear in mind that a paragraph has three elements including 1) coherence, 2) a topic sentence, and 3)
adequate development (Driscoll and Brizee, 2013). Using and adapting them to your individual purposes
will help you construct effective paragraphs.