CEA Paragraphs

CEA paragraphs are one way of structuring the paragraphs in the body of your paper. You may have heard them called something else—PIE paragraphs or CIE paragraphs—these are all different ways of describing a similar structure.

What’s CEA?

The goal of CEA paragraphs is to balance your thoughts with the thoughts of others. To enter the conversation, but to bring your own voice to the table. This paragraph structure is commonly used for body paragraphs. The first paragraph (introduction) and last paragraph (conclusion) of an essay are written with a different structure.

• Claim: Your claim is like your topic sentence. It states an opinion or point relevant to the whole topic.
• Evidence: Your evidence backs up your claim. It’s what gives your reader a reason to believe your claim. Notice evidence isn’t the first thing in the paragraph.
• Analysis: Your analysis is what connects it all together.

The goal of CEA paragraphs is to balance your thoughts with the thoughts of others. To enter the conversation, but to bring your own voice to the table. Starting each paragraph with your own statements and claims helps you make your point in a clear and organized way.

Common “Mistakes”

• Talking about an author, source, or quote write away. Since this piece of writing is not a summary, start with your own ideas to make your point clearly.
• Skipping the analysis. It’s common for people to state a claim or topic and give facts, but not explain what is meaningful or how this goes together within the paragraph and within the essay. Put enough detail in your sentences so another person can follow your logic.

Practice Activity

1. Think about an opinion you have related to the topic you’re writing about.
2. Find a piece of information that relates to your idea. This can be something like a chart that you can reference a statistic from or an article that has a fact or opinion related to your topic.
3. Consider how the information relates to your ideas. This well help you think about how to switch from our opinion to the source.
4. Write a paragraph like the example. Here are steps to do that:
   1. Write a first sentence that gives your fact-based opinion and says the topic for this paragraph. This is called a topic sentence.
   2. Add some explanation or detail that lead up to the quote you will provide.
   3. Introduce the source information
   4. Include a sentence that has the exact words surrounded by quotation marks; this is called a quote. This sentence will also say the name of the author; that is called citing your sources.
   5. Explain your opinion. Describe the logical or thought process about your idea.

Note: If it is helpful to you, do these steps starting with the easiest part. Then at the end, organize your thoughts into CEA order.

CEA Example Paragraph

Example 2

People in the United States talk about the division among government officials, public servants, and individuals living in the country. This division and unwillingness to work together is common around the world but the United States has often pretended to exist without it. The civil rights movement, LGBTQIA activism, Black Lives Matter Protest, and oil pipeline protests are some examples of resistance showing that many people in the U.S. experience injustice. In the 2011 “Noble Lecture”, Tawakkol Karman says that “Peace does not mean just to stop wars, but also to stop oppression and injustice.” Karman believes that even if there are no wars, if people don’t have rights, it’s not true to say there is peace.  I agree and think that ensuring rights for all people in the U.S. should be a priority. Guaranteeing rights could help ensure people have a better life. In turn, that could mean they give more to the country through taxes and what they do in their communities.

Example 1

People are broke and that makes it hard or impossible to afford a place to live. Steven Brill’s 2018 Time Magazine article “My Generation Was Supposed to Level America’s Playing Field. Instead, We Rigged It for Ourselves” is about the precarious financial situation most Americans are in. Based on his research, Brill concluded that Americans will be unable to pay all their necessities if there is any unexpected spending, like a car repair, over $400. He also explained that “For too many, the present is hard enough. Income inequality has soared: inflation-adjusted middle-class wages have been nearly frozen for the last four decades, while earnings of the top 1% have nearly tripled” (Brill). Low wages combined with higher prices for basics like rent, electricity, and food make it hard for people to afford everything they need. The book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City shows the stories of 8 families and the day-to-day challenges resulting in eviction and unstable housing. Normal people can work hard, budget carefully, and still end up failing to pay for basics.

Works Cited

Brill, Steven. “My Generation Was Supposed to Level America’s Playing Field. Instead, We Rigged It for Ourselves.” Time Magazine, vol. 191, no. 20, May 2018, pp. 32–39. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip&db=mth&AN=129656251&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Desmond, Matthew. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. Crown Publishers, 2016

Karman, Tawakkol. “Noble Lecture”. Noble Prize. Oslo City Hall, December 2011. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2011/karman/lecture/.

Attributions

“CEA Paragraphs.” Chapter 10: Synthesis & Drafting. Writing Place Copyright © 2022 by Lindsay Cuff is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.