How to write good Paragraphs To write a great essay for college, university or application to graduate school or an MBA program you need to understand the basics of academic writing. Before dealing with the structure of an entire essay – you need to fully understand the correct structure of a paragraph, several of which will combine to form your finished essay. What is a paragraph? It is a collection of sentences which are related to each other. The purpose of these sentences is to discuss an idea. Normally one paragraph deals with just a single idea or concept. A typical paragraph may be as short as just one sentence or as long as ten sentences. There is no hard rule; however, as a guide, a minimum of three sentences is considered normal in order to clearly explain an idea. If you need to use more sentences to fully explain your thoughts about the idea, then that is fine. A paragraph is an independent piece of writing – it can exist on its own. For example, when answeri