This lesson from The University of Toronto's Writing Lab offers an excellent discussion of topic sentences.  It covers placement of topic sentences in paragraphs, what makes a good topic sentence, and how to come up with a topic sentence.

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A wonderful series of Flash exercises to help students recognize when paragraphs are underdeveloped. Highly recommended.

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This site presents a brief but helpful set of tips for crafting strong paragraphs. The authors do an especially good job of advising students about how to focus their paragraphs and connect paragraphs to the thesis.

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This web page is written specifically for science and technology students who quickly discover that concrete language is essential to writing an effective lab report or research report. But the page is also useful for all writing students who want to be able to write strong paragraphs. The site instructs students in how to eliminate vagueness and ambiguity by using action verbs and specific nouns, and in other techniques for making ideas concrete.

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Another great lesson from the Capital Community College Foundation's Guide to Grammar and Writing. In depth discussion of how and why to use both abstract and concrete, or general and specific language to communicate ideas.  Some good examples illustrating the lesson are provided.

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This online handout from the Idaho State U. Writing Lab offers a good explanation of the difference between abstract and general language and specific and concrete language.

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