The teaching of writing, and the teaching of developmental and ESL/EFL writing in particular, has historically given priority to the sentence, often in theory and almost always in practice. The writing approach modeled here simply argues that the paragraph should be given primacy of place in ESL/EFL academic writing instruction. The paragraph-based approach outlined in this article, an approach that relies on a conventional paragraph and essay structure, and that is intimately involved with the strategic implementation of the logical relationships appropriate to a particular mode of organization, has definite advantages in the ESL/EFL academic writing classroom. The challenge of this approach for the teacher is to ensure that students' ideas and content are not lost in an obsessive pursuit of the correct form.