Subjects:

Theory:

For the FCE exam, where the size of the document is carefully controlled, a well written paragraph needs to have an introduction sentence, a detail sentence or two, and if possible, a conclusion sentence.

Let's look at an example, firstly by starting with a poor paragraph:

I love going to Barcelona because it has great shopping, nice places to walk, and the food is very good, but the people are also very friendly, so you should go there when you have some free time.

To improve this, let's isolate the main idea:

Barcelona is a fantastic city.

This is an idea, a concept, which is then supported by some detail:

It has great shopping, nice places to walk, good restaurants, and the people are very friendly.

We then need a conclusion, such as:

Why not visit when you have some free time?

Putting these elements together gives the following paragraph:

Barcelona is a fantastic city. It has great shopping, nice places to walk, good restaurants, and the people are very friendly. Why not visit when you have some free time?

This paragraph will get better marks than the previous one because the elements the examiners are looking for are easily identified.

Avoid putting the word BECAUSE after the introduction idea. Keep it short and clear, and separate from the detail sentences.

The reason paragraphs should be written with an introduction sentence is that this structure makes it easy for the reader to find information, and to know what the paragraph is going to discuss, before having to read the whole paragraph.

This structure is ideal for most of the documents required for the FCE and other exams, except for the REPORT, which uses SUBHEADINGS. In such cases, the subheading is the introduction sentence, for example:

Barcelona is a fantastic city.

It has great shopping, nice places to walk, good restaurants, and the people are very friendly. Why not visit when you have some free time?

These ideas will be looked at in more depth in the section on REPORT writing.