Outlines are visual. They are a visual representation—a picture—of what is going on inside a whole composition. In this article, we are going to discuss nine important concepts in writing. Interestingly, in writing, the use of these concepts is often not clearly...
Do you read? If so, what do you think about paragraphs? Do the paragraphs you read in your daily reading match what you have been taught about paragraphs? Chances are, they don’t. As discussed in Before the Rules: How Paragraphs Actually Developed, writers were using...
Writers were using paragraphs long before anyone could explain how they worked. This may sound strange. How can something be widely used, yet not clearly understood? But that is exactly what happened with the paragraph. For centuries, writers broke up their writing...
What’s a paragraph? You know what one is, don’t you? If you are not sure, just look down this page, and if necessary, the next page. What do you see? Do you see chunks of text surrounded by whitespace? If so, you are seeing paragraphs. (If not, please rush to a doctor...
Introduction: The Problem and the Paradox of Digression Writing requires unity. At the same time, writers are naturally drawn to digressions. We think of something interesting, something important, something worth saying—and we want to include it. That’s the problem....
Why Do Some Well-Structured Essays Still Feel Weak? Students can follow a clear structure and still produce ineffective writing. The reality is that structure alone is not sufficient. Students must understand the purpose of their writing. This is where the four main...
Beginning, Middle, and Ending (BME) is one of the most essential concepts in writing—and it has been for over two thousand years. “A whole is that which has a beginning, a middle, and an end.” — Aristotle (384 BC–322 BC) This is not just a writing principle. It is a...
Unity may be the most crucial concept in writing. Unity directly relates to this question: What’s your point? We must ask that question at multiple levels of thinking: What’s your point in that sentence? What’s your point in that paragraph? What’s your point in that...
In Lee Child’s Jack Reacher books, logical and calculating Reacher famously says, “Details matter.” Reacher does not say “supporting details” matter. He doesn’t say that because he means that the details matter—the specifics matter. Calling all details supporting...
This may be the most informative page ever on topic sentences. You will learn a mountain of topic-sentence theory and advice from five classic books on writing well. However, I also analyze the paragraphs from these classic books to see if they follow their own...
In one of my favorite informal experiments, Professor Arthur A. Stern removed the paragraph breaks from a section of text from “Fundamentals of Good Writing” (1950) and had English teachers reparagraph it. Only 5 out of 100 teachers reparagraphed it as the original...
Students want to know, “Why doesn’t every paragraph have a topic sentence? How do real writers create paragraphs?” Do you see topic sentences in all of the paragraphs you read? Well, it’s not your imagination. Not all paragraphs have topic sentences. This is not just...
“What’s your point?” That’s the most critical concept in writing. It’s crucial at the paragraph level and the whole composition level. Writers need clear and organized thinking throughout the entire writing process. Let’s look at four key concepts that help writers...
Are you teaching the truth about paragraphs? Probably not. The truth is not what you think it is. Much of what you have learned about paragraphs is simply not true. In 1866, Alexander Bain created a list of six paragraph rules that became the foundation of modern...
When you teach your students how to write paragraphs, what exactly are you teaching them? In short, paragraph instruction involves three basic paragraph concepts: 1) Unity, 2) Coherence, and 3) Emphasis. These three concepts are the three traits of paragraphs. All of...
