Watch the fol­lo­wing video careful­ly until 6:30 (in the rest of the video he gives and explains an example): 

For my stu­dents:

I want you to INDENT the first line of a new para­graph, I do NOT want you to “skip a line”, i.e. lea­ve a blank line.

What the spea­k­er calls “the­sis (The­se) state­ment” is our “topic sentence”.

Ending a para­graph with a “bridge” is a fea­ture of advan­ced wri­ting. You need NOT do it, when you ans­wer ques­ti­ons on a text. When wri­ting a com­po­si­ti­on you should only try it, when you are real­ly good, other­wi­se your “bridge” will pro­ba­b­ly be rather clum­sy (holp­rig).