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Writing critical paragraphs

Improve your essays by following these tips on writing critical paragraphs

Student on laptop in library

The main body of your essay should be used to develop your main points. The paragraphs that you write need to demonstrate that you have an understanding of the content and have used academic evidence to support your points.

When you approach your paragraphs with a structure, it can often make it easier to write. Rather than focussing on how you are going to write your paragraphs, you can concentrate on what you are including in your paragraphs.

Below are two approaches that you can use to write your critical paragraphs: PEE and TEEEL.

Point, Evidence & Explanation (PEE)

Point
Your ‘point’ will inform the reader what the main idea is for the paragraph. Ideally, your point will be a direct response to your question or assignment brief.

Evidence
For any point you make, you will need to provide evidence to back it up. Make sure that you only include evidence that is relevant to the point you are making. Not everything you read needs to be included in your essay.

Explanation
Once you present your evidence, you need to explain how the evidence supports your point.

A female wearing glasses on her laptop

  • An example of PEE

    Student on their phone in a restaurant

    What are some of the advantages and disadvantages to shopping online?

    • [Point] A disadvantage to shopping online is that you are unable to assess the quality of the product before you buy it. An important factor of shopping, either traditionally or online, is being able to assess the quality of a product in comparison to others (Beckert and Musselin, 2013).
       
    • [Evidence] Up to 30% of non-food goods purchased online are returned, in comparison to 6 -10% of non-food goods purchased through traditional shopping methods (de Koster, 2002). In a questionnaire conducted by Baier and Stüber (2010), respondents identified that they found the inability to touch products and evaluate their quality a drawback of shopping online.
       
    • [Explanation] This study is significant as without being able to assess the quality of items you purchased, you could end up spending more time and more money returning items that failed to meet your expectations.

Topic, Expand, Evidence, Explanation & Link (TEEEL)

Topic Sentence
Begin each paragraph with the main idea/ topic sentence.This tells the reader what the paragraph will be about.

Expand
Make sure your reader understands the main idea by explaining or giving a definition of any abstract or problematic terms.

Evidence and Reference
Give some evidence to support your main idea – the evidence should be a direct quotation or paraphrase and supported by a reference.

Explanation
How does your evidence support/develop the main idea?

Link
Conclude your paragraph by either;

  • linking back to your main idea
  • linking forward to the main idea in the next paragraph.
Students completing their work in a booth in the library

  • An example of TEEL

    Two budding studio engineers learning how to use the equipment at a recording studio

    What are some of the major challenges for the music industry in creating music videos?

    [Topic Sentence] Finding the balance between cultural borrowing and cultural appropriation is a major challenge for the music industry in creating music videos.

    [Expand] Cultural appropriation is defined as ‘the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture’ (Cambridge, 2018).

    [Evidence and Reference] According to Arewa (2017), power plays a significant role in cultural borrowing, as more powerful cultures are able to borrow from less powerful cultures without contest. She explains that when boundaries are unclear, this can lead to unintentional appropriation.

    [Explanation] This is significant in the process of creating music videos, as artists and producers would have to ensure that they do not inadvertently use cultural references, which could be seen as inappropriate, in their work.

    [Link] Furthermore, cultural references are becoming more and more accessible with the instantaneous nature of digital media, meaning this problem is likely to grow.

Useful links

References

Arewa, O.B., 2017, March. Love, hate, and culture wars. In Phi Kappa Phi Forum (Vol. 97, No. 1, pp. 26-30). Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi.

Baier, D. and Stüber, E., 2010. Acceptance of recommendations to buy in online retailing. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 17 (3), pp.173-180.

Beckert, J. and Musselin, C. eds., 2013. Constructing quality: The classification of goods in markets. OUP Oxford.

Cambridge Dictionary (2019) Cultural Appropriation. Available at: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/cultural-appropriation (Accessed: 13 December 2019).

De Koster, R.M.B., 2002. Distribution structures for food home shopping. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 32(5), pp.362-380.