Paragraphs as Mini-Papers: Just as every paper has an introduction, body, and conclusion, every body paragraph itself has an introduction, body, and conclusion. In a body paragraph, the introduction is called an assertion, the body is called evidence, and the conclusion is called analysis.

The Logic of the Body Paragraph: Every body paragraph is different, yet every body paragraph is the same. That is, the content of a body paragraph (the specific information that you present and discuss) is infinite, yet the form of a body paragraph is fairly standard. For every body paragraph works in roughly the same way: make an assertion, give the evidence that supports that assertion, provide analysis of how that evidence supports that assertion, and provide analysis of how that assertion supports your argument.

The Body Paragraph in Theory: In theory, therefore, the logic of a paragraph is as follows:

• Assertion: Make a claim.
  • Evidence: Present the evidence that supports your assertion.
  • Analysis1: Explain how your evidence supports your assertion.
  • Analysis2: Explain how your assertion plays a part in your argument.

The Reality of the Body Paragraph: In practice, a paragraph will rarely, if ever, work this cleanly. Indeed, if you wrote a series of paragraphs each rigidly following the above structure, your paper would feel very mechanical. Moreover, there are different kinds of evidence. There is textual evidence, which consists of examples, facts, statistics, etc.; there is historical evidence, which offers context; and there is citational evidence, which itself has three kinds: critical, historical, and theoretical. Any paragraph in a serious academic paper will be a mixture of all these various kinds of evidence and analysis of it.

The Body Paragraph in Practice: In practice, therefore, a body paragraph is more likely to look something like this (with each bullet point representing a sentence):

• Assertion: Make a claim.
  • Orientation: Provide framing/background for the evidence you’re about to present. 
  • Evidence: Present the evidence that supports your assertion (maybe quotation).
  • Evidence: Present some more evidence (maybe summary).
  • Analysis1: Explain how your evidence supports your assertion.
  • Evidence: Present some more evidence (maybe quantitative).
  • Analysis2: Explain how your assertion plays a part in your argument.

Moving from Evidence to Analysis: Furthermore, there are some important strategies you can use to move from evidence to analysis, such as asking questions and offering counters.

From Evidence to Analysis with Questions: First, you can use questions to set up analyses. Just as you start your paper with a problem statement (an analytical question that is answered in your thesis statement), you can pose an analytical question in your body paragraphs about the evidence just provided and then follow that question with an analysis that answers it, just as a thesis answers an analytical question on the level of an argument.

From Evidence to Analysis with Counters: Second, just as in can be effective to place a question between evidence and analysis, it can also be helpful to provide a counter. It can show that you’ve considered the evidence at hand in depth if you can articulate multiple possible interpretations as you go about your analysis (i.e., the best interpretation in your view).

Questions and Counters for Transitions: On a related note, it can also be effective to use a question or counter to shift from one paragraph or section to the next. Usually, this transition will take the form of summarizing your argument up to the current point in the paper, and then using the question or counter to shift into the next idea in the argument. 

Body Sections in Practice: As paragraphs start to function as parts of sections, you will find that sections of your paper start to look more complicated, as in the following example:

• Assertion for Section 1
  • Assertion for Paragraph 1.1
    • Evidence
    • Analysis1
  • Assertion for Paragraph 1.2
    • Evidence
    • Analysis1
    • Analysis2

Longer Body Sections in Practice: To give you a sense of how these things look in their final form, here's an outline of a body section from a recent paper I wrote:

• Question/Problem for Section 2
  • Assertion for Section 2
  • Assertion for Paragraph 2.1
  • Textual Evidence
  • Textual Evidence
  • Analysis1
  • Counter
  • Response
• Assertion for Paragraph 2.2
  • Textual Evidence
  • Question/Problem
  • Analysis1
  • Analysis2
• Question/Problem for Paragraph 2.3
  • Assertion for Paragraph 2.3
  • Theoretical Citation
  • Textual Evidence
  • Analysis1
  • Textual Evidence
  • Counter
  • Response
  • Analysis2