AP® English Language and Composition review sheet from Aim for Five (aimforfive.com/lang/units/5/5-1)
Unit 5 · Topic 5.1
5.1 Body paragraphs that move the argument forward
Each body paragraph proves one step of your argument: it states a claim, backs it with evidence, and explains why that step matters to the thesis. Each paragraph should add something new instead of repeating what came before.
Key terms
- body paragraph
- topic sentence
- claim
- development
The parts of a body paragraph
Every body paragraph has a job in the larger argument. To do it, the paragraph usually needs three things: a claim (often in the topic sentence) that connects to the thesis, evidence that supports the claim, and commentary that explains how the evidence proves the claim and how the paragraph advances the argument. Without the claim, readers don't know what the paragraph is for. Without evidence, the claim is just an opinion. Without commentary, the evidence just sits there.
The order can flex. Some paragraphs open with evidence and build to the claim, and a strong paragraph may weave two or three rounds of evidence and commentary together. What matters is that all three parts are there and that the claim is clear by the end.
Moving the argument forward
Readers should finish each paragraph knowing something new. If two paragraphs make the same point with different examples, combine them or give one a different job. A quick test: write one sentence for each paragraph that starts "This paragraph shows that..." If two sentences match, your argument is standing still.
The last sentence or two of a paragraph is a good place to show progress. Explain what the paragraph has established and, if it helps, point toward the next step.
Ask "So what?" at the end of each paragraph. The answer, written as a sentence, is often the commentary that shows how the paragraph matters to the thesis.
What body paragraphs look like in each essay
| Essay | Topic sentence states | Evidence | Commentary explains |
|---|---|---|---|
| Synthesis (Q1) | A reason that supports your position | Specific details from at least three sources across the essay, cited | How the sources support your reason and relate to each other |
| Rhetorical analysis (Q2) | A choice the writer makes and its purpose | Short, precise quotations from the passage | How the choice works on the audience in this situation |
| Argument (Q3) | A reason that supports your position | Specific examples from history, reading, current events or experience | Why the example proves the reason, and how it connects to the thesis |
A quick checklist
- Does the topic sentence make a claim that connects to the thesis?
- Is the evidence specific (names, numbers, exact words) rather than general?
- Does commentary follow every piece of evidence?
- Is there more explanation than quotation?
- Does the paragraph end with explanation rather than a quotation?
- Does this paragraph do a job no other paragraph does?
Worked examples
Try each one yourself first, then open the solution.
- Example 1
A Question 2 body paragraph on the Declaration of Sentiments
The Declaration of Sentiments, adopted at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, follows its opening with a long list of grievances, each beginning the same way: "He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise. He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice." Compare this summary-only draft (written for this page), "The writers list many things men have done to women, like not letting them vote and making them follow laws. This shows women were treated unfairly," with a body paragraph that does the full job.
Show the solutionHide the solution
- Step 1: Diagnose the draft: it summarizes the grievances and ends with an obvious statement. There's no claim about a choice and no explanation of its effect.
- Step 2: Write a topic sentence that names a choice and its purpose: the repeated "He has" structure turns scattered unfairness into a single pattern of oppression.
- Step 3: Use short, precise evidence: "He has never permitted" and "He has compelled."
- Step 4: Explain the effect on the 1848 audience, who knew the Declaration of Independence's list of charges against the king.
- Step 5: End with commentary that connects to the thesis about the document's purpose.
Answer: Model paragraph: [Claim] The Declaration of Sentiments presents women's mistreatment not as a set of separate complaints but as a deliberate pattern, and its repeated sentence structure does much of that work. [Evidence] Grievance after grievance begins with the same subject and verb: "He has never permitted her" to vote; "He has compelled her to submit to laws" she had no voice in making. [Commentary] By making "He" the subject of every charge, the writers turn men in general into a single ruler who acts on purpose, and make women the object of his power. [Commentary] For readers who knew that the Declaration of Independence listed the king's abuses in exactly this form, the pattern is unmistakable: men stand where the king once stood. [Link] The repetition therefore does more than catalog wrongs. It argues that women have the same right to resist that the colonists claimed in 1776.
Common mistakes
- Topic sentences that name a device ("The author uses repetition") without saying what it does or why.
- Ending a paragraph on a quotation, leaving readers to explain it themselves.
- Two paragraphs that make the same point with different evidence.
- Commentary that only restates the evidence ("This shows women were treated unfairly").
On the exam
- Row B rewards specific evidence and commentary in every paragraph. Two well-developed body paragraphs usually beat four thin ones.
- Reading questions sometimes ask how a paragraph contributes to the passage as a whole. Answer with the paragraph's job: introduces, illustrates, qualifies, concludes.
Connected topics
Videos
Check yourself
4 questions on 5.1 Body paragraphs that move the argument forward. Pick an answer to see if you got it, and why.
Written for this practice set: two body paragraphs from a student's draft of a proposal to the school board.
Sentence 6 (reproduced below) opens paragraph 2. "A personal finance course would help students make good financial decisions." Why is it a weak topic sentence for this paragraph?
Which version of sentence 6 would best move the argument forward?
Which choice, added after sentence 8, would best develop the claim of paragraph 2 with evidence?
Robert Louis Stevenson, "An Apology for Idlers" (1877), collected in Virginibus Puerisque (1881). An "apology" here means a defense. Lord Macaulay was a famous historian who won top honors at school; the Lady of Shalott, from a poem by Tennyson, sees the world only in a mirror. A "burn" is a stream.
The first sentence of paragraph 1 functions as
0 of 4 answered