The Paragraph

A paragraph is a unit of thought; it is at once a unit in itself and part of a larger whole, that is, the essay.
A paragraph is like a mini-essay; it should be unified, coherent and well developed. A paragraph is unified when all the sentences in the paragraph are focused on one central thought or on a single topic; when the writer wishes to introduce a new thought or topic, he should begin a new paragraph. A paragraph is coherent when it develops naturally and smoothly, and one sentence leads logically to another. There are many ways to develop a paragraph, for example, by process, by cause and effect, by comparison and contrast, etc.
Paragraphs vary in length. In a short expository essay of about 600 words, the average paragraph may be about 100 words, or between four and eight sentences. Ultimately, the length of the paragraph depends on its topic, its position in the essay and its role in the development of the thesis statement. Paragraphs in books are usually longer than those in newspapers. A long paragraph expresses a complex idea, and a short one makes a major transition, an emphatic statement, or a summary. An experienced writer varies the length of his paragraphs to avoid monotony.

Ⅰ. Effective Paragraphs

1. Unity

Unity of a paragraph is concerned with its content. If all the sentences in the paragraph lead to one central theme, the paragraph is unified. The central theme is usually summarized in what is called the topic sentence. It often appears at the beginning of the paragraph; however, it may also be found in the middle or at the end of a paragraph.

    One of the central preoccupations of the arts and humanities is the observation of human beings. Painters and sculptors create images of the human form; writers tell stories or compose poems about human experience; musical artists give melodic contours to the human spirit; historians and philosophers ponder the essential qualities of human civilization and nature. And in our own lives, in our own ways, we spend a great deal of our energy and attention on our fellow creatures, being in families and other kinds of relationships, observing people with curiosity and interest in the course of the day, thinking about and forming our own character - deciding what kind of person we wish to be - as we grow.

- Don Knefel

We now have, as a result of modern means of communication, hundreds of thousands of words flung at us daily. We are constantly being talked at, by teachers, preachers, salesmen, public officials, and motion-picture sound tracks. The cries of advertisers pursue us into our very homes, thanks to the radio - and in some houses the radio is never turned off from morning to night. Daily the newsboy brings us, in large cities, from thirty to fifty enormous pages of print, and almost three times that amount on Sunday. We go out and get more words at bookstores and libraries. Words fill our lives.

In the first paragraph the first sentence is the topic sentence, whereas in the second paragraph, it is the last sentence.
Sometimes, the topic sentence is not stated explicitly but is implied. In the following paragraph, all the details contribute to one theme - what the room looks like. Though without a topic sentence, the paragraph is unified.

    The room is located on the fifth floor of the high building. One third of its total floor space is taken up by a double bed. Facing it, in the corner behind the door, stands a cupboard loaded with pots, bowls, dishes, bottles, and bags of rice and flour. A desk completely fills the gap between the bed and the wall with the window. Behind the desk is a chair, the only one in the room; and it almost touches the boxes and trunks piled against the wall on the opposite side.

- Student

2. Coherence

Coherence of a paragraph is concerned with its form, or its organization. The sentences in a paragraph should be arranged in a clear, logical order, and the transitions should be smooth and natural. As a result, the reader finds it easy to follow the writer's train of thought and understand what he is talking about.

    There is some feeling nowadays that reading is not as necessary as it once was. Radio and especially television have taken over many of the functions once served by print, just as photography has taken over functions once served by painting and other graphic arts. Admittedly, television serves some of these functions extremely well; the visual communication of news events, for example, has enormous impact. The ability of radio to give us information while we are engaged in doing other things - for instance, driving a car - is remarkable, and a great saving of time. But it may be seriously questioned whether the advent of modern communications media has much enhanced our understanding of the world in which we live.

- Mortimer J. Adler

This paragraph is coherent. The writer begins with a statement, and then he goes on to explain what have made some people feel that "reading is not as necessary as it once was" - radio and television have almost replaced the functions of the printed matter. What follows further explains how watching the television and listening to the radio serve some of the functions of reading. But the writer doubts whether the appearance of modern communications media has really promoted our understanding of the world, which he expresses in the last sentence, the topic sentence of the paragraph.

3. Transition

Coherence may not be perfect even if the writer arranges his sentences in a clear, logical order. He has to use good transitions so that one sentence runs smoothly to another.
The following ways may help the writer to produce a fluent paragraph:
A. Using parallel structures;
B. Repeating words or word groups;
C. Using pronouns to refer to nouns in preceding sentences;
D. Being consistent in the person and number of nouns and pronouns, and the tense of verbs.
In the following paragraph, note how the writer makes use of all these ways to achieve coherence.

    Americans are queer people: they can't play. Americans rush to work as soon as they grow up. They want their work as soon as they wake. It is a stimulant - the only one they are not afraid of. They used to open their offices at ten o'clock; then at nine; then at eight; then at seven. Now they never shut them. Every business in America is turning into an open-all-day-and-night business. They eat all night, dance all night, build buildings all night, make a noise all night. They can't play. They try to, but can't. They turn football into a fight, baseball into a lawsuit, and yachting into machinery. They can't play. The little children can't play; they use mechanical toys instead - toy cranes, hoisting toy loads, toy machinery spreading a toy industrial depression of infantile dullness. The grownup people can't play; they use a mechanical gymnasium and a clockwork horse. They can't laugh; they hire a comedian and watch him laugh.

- Stephen Leacock

E. Using transitional expressions

1) Connectives and transitional phrases for spatial development:

above	before me	here	on the left
across from	below	in the distance	on the right
adjacent to	beyond	nearby	opposite to
also	further	next to	on top of
up	down	close to	beneath
under	around	near to	over

2) Connectives and transitional phrases for chronological development:

 

first,second,etc.	soon	eventually
in the meantime	then	thereupon
at the same time	next	thereafter
after an interval0	now	after
presently	later	afterward
somewhat later	finally	at last

3) Connectives and transitional phrases for analytical development:

 

first,second,etc.	now	for this purpose
but	as a result	furthermore
finally	at last	moreover
also	consequently	likewise
another	for example	next
yet	for instance	on the contrary
once	in addition	in summary
such	in this case	on the other hand
then	otherwise	in conclusion
thus	in closing	therefore

4) Connectives and transitional phrases for comparisons:

another	futhermore	moreover
equally important	too, also	at the same time
besides	then	accordingly
in fact	in addition to	like, likewise
similarly	just as...so	in the same way

5) Connectives and transitional phrases for contrasts:

on the contrary	different from/in contrast
on the ohter hand	to
despite	in spite of
yet,but	whereas
unlike	nevertheless
not only...but also	here...there
years ago...today	this...that
the former...the latter	then...now
the first...whereas the second	some...others
on the one hand...on the other	once...now