Paragraphs

A paragraph is a basic unit of writing that unites sentences into meaningful groups. Contrary to what many of us were taught in school about the five-sentence paragraphs, a paragraph can be anywhere from one sentence to half a page long as long as it presents ideas in a unified manner. A strong paragraph should be unified around a central or main idea.

A new paragraph can begin:

• when the topic or an aspect of the topic has been fully discussed; or
• when the focus shifts to a new or different thought (or new time or location).

For example, if you are discussing business meetings scheduled for Monday, start a new paragraph when you switch to the discussion of the meetings on Tuesday.

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Avoid a Succession of Loose Sentences

This rule refers especially to loose sentences of a particular type, those consisting of two co-ordinate clauses, the second introduced by a conjunction or relative. Although single sentences of this type may be unexceptionable, a series soon becomes monotonous and tedious.

An unskillful writer will sometimes construct a whole paragraph of sentences of this kind, using as connectives and, but, and less frequently, who, which, when, where, and while, these last in non-restrictive senses.

The third concert of the subscription series was given last evening, and a large audience was in attendance. Mr. Edward Appleton was the soloist, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra furnished the instrumental music. The former showed himself to be an artist of the first rank, while the latter proved itself fully deserving of its high reputation. The interest aroused by the series has been very gratifying to the Committee, and it is planned to give a similar series annually hereafter. The fourth concert will be given on Tuesday, May 10, when an equally attractive program will be presented.

Apart from its triteness and emptiness, the paragraph above is bad because of the structure of its sentences, with their mechanical symmetry and sing-song. Contrast with them the sentences in the paragraphs in any piece of good English prose, as the preface (Before the Curtain) to Vanity Fair.

If the writer finds that he has written a series of sentences of the type described, he should recast enough of them to remove the monotony, replacing them by simple sentences, by sentences of two clauses joined by a semicolon, by periodic sentences of two clauses, by sentences, loose or periodic, of three clauses-whichever best represent the real relations of the thought.

from Weekly Business Writing Tips
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