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| Frankly without paragraphs we would be lost. |
The Poor Paragraph
So far we have learned a few tricks to identify poorly worded sentences so that we can improve the sentence's one primary function - to convey a specific point such as an idea, fact, or concept. All of those specific points are marshaled to support a final end point conclusion. Paragraphs' role is to break up your paper into kindly little mile markers that urge the reader further by assuring predicability, understanding, and order to what my otherwise be a quagmire and swamp of jumbled letters.
So before we continue on to learning how to improve our sentences more, it is time to devote attention to that next largest building block of any writing - the paragraph. While the following ideas may seem pedestrian, formulaic, and uninspired they will add great clarity to your writing.
FIRST - Make your paragraphs look like paragraphs. Put some space between your paragraphs so that the reader can see where paragraphs begin and end at a glance. Otherwise you risk have your page - if not your entire document - look like one hugh run on sentence.
SECOND - Make your paragraphs short. Look at any mass mailing, sales pitch, pitch for donations and you will likely not see a single "paragraph" longer than six lines of text. While I am not necessarily advocating this, think long and hard about having a paragraph contain more than ten sentences. At that point, you have to ask yourself, is this really one single unifying concept or can I (should I) break it up. Short paragraphs will give your reader a sense of progress, movement, and clarity.
THIRD - Structure your paragraphs around your argument. This seems obvious, but in practice it can pose problems particularly when you are struggling to include all your good facts, rules, and conclusions. When deadlines loom, it becomes less important to get it perfect than to get it finished. The ideal way to ensure that your paragraphs flow with your argument is to perform an opening sentence review.
In this class we will evaluate papers looking at just the opening sentence of each paragraph. If a reader, looking at just the first sentence of each paragraph cannot obtain the gist of the paper's argument - then things should change. Formulaic? Possibly, but it did wonders for George Lucas.
SECOND - Make your paragraphs short. Look at any mass mailing, sales pitch, pitch for donations and you will likely not see a single "paragraph" longer than six lines of text. While I am not necessarily advocating this, think long and hard about having a paragraph contain more than ten sentences. At that point, you have to ask yourself, is this really one single unifying concept or can I (should I) break it up. Short paragraphs will give your reader a sense of progress, movement, and clarity.
THIRD - Structure your paragraphs around your argument. This seems obvious, but in practice it can pose problems particularly when you are struggling to include all your good facts, rules, and conclusions. When deadlines loom, it becomes less important to get it perfect than to get it finished. The ideal way to ensure that your paragraphs flow with your argument is to perform an opening sentence review.
In this class we will evaluate papers looking at just the opening sentence of each paragraph. If a reader, looking at just the first sentence of each paragraph cannot obtain the gist of the paper's argument - then things should change. Formulaic? Possibly, but it did wonders for George Lucas.
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