[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”4.24.0″ width=”100%” max_width=”100%” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”4.24.0″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” width=”100%” max_width=”100%” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Intro” _builder_version=”4.24.2″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
In one of my favorite informal experiments, Professor Arthur A. Stern removed the paragraph breaks from a section of text from \u201cFundamentals of Good Writing\u201d (1950) and had English teachers reparagraph it. Only 5 out of 100 teachers reparagraphed it as the original authors. When asked to reparagraph it a second time, many teachers didn\u2019t reparagraph the text as they had the first time. How can this be if what we teach students about paragraphs is true?<\/p>\n
By the way, if you teach paragraph or multi-paragraph writing, you owe it to yourself to check out Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay<\/a><\/strong>. You will get twice the results in half the time. Furthermore, it creates a foundation and framework that\u2019s easy to build on.<\/p>\n To be clear, you should still read this page. For over a hundred years, theorists have debated the true nature of paragraphs. After reading this, you will understand paragraphs and paragraphing much better!<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Border – Review” _builder_version=”4.24.2″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”14px|14px|14px|14px|true|true” border_radii=”on|9px|9px|9px|9px” border_width_all=”8px” border_color_all=”#1258b2″ global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with a quick review of various paragraph concepts I\u2019ve discussed elsewhere on my website. All of these concepts are essential for understanding paragraphs.<\/p>\n Do you want to understand paragraphs? Go to the library and collect 20 books, magazines, and newspapers from different sections of the library. Now, open them up and look at the paragraphs. What do you see? The truth is that there is a paragraph logic behind everything you see.<\/p>\n Hopefully, you have gathered at least a few different types of books for various audiences and examined the paragraphs. Keep what you saw in mind as you move forward. Now, let\u2019s begin exploring the true nature of paragraphs.<\/p>\n For at least one hundred years, dictionaries have defined \u201cparagraph\u201d as both a noun and a verb. Here is how Webster\u2019s Dictionary<\/em> defined paragraph<\/em> in 1913. Oxford Dictionary<\/em> (2016) defines it pretty much the same way.<\/p>\n \u2666 Noun:<\/strong> Any section or subdivision of a writing or chapter which relates to a particular point, whether consisting of one or many sentences. (Webster\u2019s Dictionary \u2013 1913<\/em>)<\/p>\n \u2666 Verb:<\/strong> To divide into paragraphs.<\/p>\n In The Ten Stages of Paragraph and Multi-Paragraph Mastery<\/a><\/strong>, I discuss paragraphing styles in depth as they relate to student writers. When thinking about professional writing, two of the following styles will jump out at you as extremely common. Keep these styles in mind moving forward.<\/p>\n Genre is one of the most important concepts in writing. Once again, I suggest analyzing 20 different books from 20 different sections of the library because you will find 20 different genres. To be clear, I look at genres the way Netflix and Rotten Tomatoes look at genres. Things like audience and format are often a part of specific genres.<\/p>\n It\u2019s difficult to understand paragraphing in the real world without understanding genre. In short, if writers don\u2019t paragraph in line with their genre\u2019s requirements, the genre audience may not like it and may even have a gut reaction against it and refuse to read it. Writers must paragraph (verb) for their readers. Consider the different lengths and styles of paragraphing in these various genres:<\/p>\n \u00bb\u00a0<\/strong> <\/span>popular fiction vs. encyclopedias vs. legal briefs vs. emails vs. journal articles vs. children\u2019s chapter books vs. college textbooks vs. elementary textbooks vs. magazine articles vs. classic novels from the 18th century vs. internet writing<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Intro – Main Section” _builder_version=”4.24.2″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Teachers like to think a paragraph is one thing. With this belief, they can keep things simple and concrete for their students. Unfortunately, paragraphs and paragraphing are far more complex than that. Here is the good news: After reading this, you will have a much fuller understanding of paragraphs and paragraphing. As a result, you will be a more effective writing teacher!<\/p>\n We will look at six different aspects of paragraphs.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s begin!<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”1 Punctuation” _builder_version=”4.24.2″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”14px|14px|14px|14px|true|true” border_radii=”on|9px|9px|9px|9px” border_width_all=”8px” border_color_all=”#1258b2″ global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n The paragraph mark began its life as punctuation. In fact, it\u2019s regarded as the very first punctuation mark. Take a look!<\/p>\n \u00bb\u00a0<\/strong> <\/span>The paragraph is the oldest mark of punctuation in Greek manuscripts. It first occurs as a horizontal stroke (sometimes with a dot over it), placed at the beginning of a line, just beneath the first two or three letters. It indicated that a sentence, or some longer division of the text, was ended in the underscored line. The mark thus distinguished the close of one section rather than the beginning of another. \u2013 The History of the English Paragraph (1894) by Edwin Herbert Lewis<\/em><\/p>\n The Six Traits of Writing model lists punctuation and paragraphing as parts of Conventions. In other words, even today, paragraphing is often viewed as punctuation.<\/p>\n The only other trait paragraphing could be associated with is Organization. However, paragraphing in real writing is more complicated and does not simply reflect an organizational structure. Different genres require different paragraphing strategies, and different writers paragraph differently across different genres. The Six Traits of Writing was created by examining what real writers do, and real writers use paragraphs as a form of punctuation. Writers use paragraphing as a way of creating clearness and emphasis or simply as a way of indicating a pause in thought.<\/p>\n The following two quotes effectively explain paragraphing as punctuation. Please note that the bold headings<\/strong> are parts of the quotes.<\/p>\n \u00bb\u00a0 <\/span>Paragraph a Mark of Punctuation:<\/strong> Discussion of the paragraph really belongs under the head of punctuation, since its purpose is to set off the larger divisions of the story in the same way that the period and the comma mark sentences and phrases. The indention of the first line catches the eye of the reader and notifies him silently to stop for a summary of his impressions before starting a somewhat different phase of the story. Its purpose, like that of the other marks of punctuation, is clearness and emphasis. \u2014 News Writing: The Gathering , Handling and Writing of News Stories (1917) by M. Lyle Spencer<\/em><\/p>\n \u00bb\u00a0 <\/span>Indentation:<\/strong> In written and printed matter, the beginning of a paragraph is indicated by an indentation. Indentation does not make a paragraph, but we indent because we are beginning a new paragraph. Indentation thus serves the same purpose as punctuation. It helps the reader to determine when we have finished one main thought and are about to begin another. \u2014 Composition-Rhetoric (1905) by Stratton D. Brooks<\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”2 Extended Sentence” _builder_version=”4.24.2″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”14px|14px|14px|14px|true|true” border_radii=”on|9px|9px|9px|9px” border_width_all=”8px” border_color_all=”#1258b2″ global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n A while back, as an experiment and to prove it to myself, I rewrote several fully developed paragraphs as single, grammatically correct sentences. I discovered that it\u2019s not that hard. Extremely long sentences have a main clause, along with some coordinate clauses, subordinate clauses, and modifiers. What makes a long sentence a well-written sentence is that it has unity, coherence, and emphasis. That\u2019s exactly what a well-written, fully-developed paragraph must have.<\/p>\n In short, we can break up long sentences into multiple sentences and, in the process, create a paragraph. In one sense, a paragraph is simply an expanded or extended sentence, with the main clause clearly expressed as a topic sentence. Take a look!<\/p>\n \u00bb\u00a0<\/strong> <\/span>Sometimes an author makes his paragraphs little else than expanded sentences. This is a common style of Jeremy Taylor. \u2014 Handbook of the English Tongue (1861) by Joseph Angus, M.A.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00bb\u00a0<\/strong> <\/span>In essence the paragraph today is just what it has been since the beginning, an \u201cexpanded sentence\u201d \u2013 logically, structurally, semantically. \u2014 A Discourse-centered Rhetoric of the Paragraph (1966) by Paul C. Rodgers, Jr.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00bb\u00a0<\/strong> <\/span>Another [way to think of the paragraph] is to think of the paragraph as a group of logically related sentences, composed of unified parts, based on a single idea. It is possible to view the paragraph as an extended sentence. \u2014 Process and Thought in Composition (1980) by Frank J. D\u2019Angelo<\/em><\/p>\n \u00bb\u00a0<\/strong> <\/span>Just as it is possible to view the paragraph as an extended sentence, it is also possible to view the essay as an extended paragraph, or conversely to view the paragraph as a miniature essay. In this view, the same compositional principles of coordination and subordination apply. \u2014 Process and Thought in Composition (1975) by Frank J. D\u2019Angelo<\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”3 Mini-Essay” _builder_version=”4.24.2″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”14px|14px|14px|14px|true|true” border_radii=”on|9px|9px|9px|9px” border_width_all=”8px” border_color_all=”#1258b2″ global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n This is the most damaging interpretation of the paragraph for teaching students to write. Although there is truth in it, it is not true. Understanding the paragraph as a whole and not as a part of a whole creates a distorted view of what a paragraph is.<\/p>\n Alexander Bain\u2019s original definition of a paragraph is both excellent and problematic. This is the definition that led to the mini-essay theory.<\/p>\n \u00bb\u00a0<\/strong> <\/span>The division of discourse next higher than the sentence is the Paragraph: which is a collection of sentences with unity of purpose. Like every division of discourse, a paragraph handles and exhausts a distinct topic. \u2014 English Composition and Rhetoric (1866) by Alexander Bain<\/em><\/p>\n I agree with the \u201ccollection of sentences with unity of purpose\u201d aspect. In fact, I believe that this is all that a paragraph is\u2014and has ever been. I suppose the \u201cparagraph handles and exhausts a distinct topic\u201d causes the problem. It is not a problem if the writer also understands that Bain says that is also what a sentence does. To paraphrase Bain, \u201clike every division of discourse,\u201d a sentence handles and exhausts a distinct topic.<\/p>\n As you can see in the following quotes, this mini-essay theory has persisted.<\/p>\n \u00bb\u00a0<\/strong> <\/span>A Paragraph is in fact a whole composition in miniature, and sometimes constitutes a whole composition. \u2014 The Structure of English Prose: A Manual of Composition and Rhetoric (1885) by John G. R. McElroy<\/em><\/p>\n \u00bb\u00a0<\/strong> <\/span>In this chapter we shall study each paragraph as if it were a separate and complete composition in miniature, and shall use the term isolated paragraph to indicate that fact. \u2014 Paragraph Writing: A Rhetoric For Colleges (1909) by Fred Newton Scott and Joseph Villiers Denny<\/em><\/p>\n \u00bb\u00a0<\/strong> <\/span>They [English teachers] believed that a well-developed paragraph is \u201ca composition in miniature.\u201d They believed, accordingly, that good English teachers should concentrate on teaching their students to write good paragraphs, because good paragraphs are really good essays writ small. \u2014 When Is a Paragraph? (1976) by Arthur A. Stern<\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”4 Hierarchy” _builder_version=”4.24.2″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”14px|14px|14px|14px|true|true” border_radii=”on|9px|9px|9px|9px” border_width_all=”8px” border_color_all=”#1258b2″ global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Organized writing is always a hierarchy of ideas. This hierarchy includes superordinate, coordinate, and subordinate ideas. And yes, in case you are wondering, an outline is the classic example of this hierarchy of ideas. However, in the real world of paragraph writing, the main ideas (superordinate ideas) are implied around 50% of the time<\/a><\/strong>. Even when main ideas are implied, these superordinate ideas are still a part of the hierarchy.<\/p>\n The reality of writing in the real world is that some paragraphs are a continuation of the preceding paragraph. In short, sometimes two or more paragraphs are built around a single main idea, forming a paragraph bloc<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Although all organized writing forms a hierarchy of ideas, a perfect and consistent hierarchy of ideas looks somewhat formulaic. That\u2019s not how most writers write. The following two quotes point out that this hierarchy of ideas is critical at all levels of composition.<\/p>\n \u00bb\u00a0<\/strong> <\/span>Just as it is possible to view the paragraph as an extended sentence, it is also possible to view the essay as an extended paragraph, or conversely to view the paragraph as a miniature essay. In this view, the same compositional principles of coordination and subordination apply. \u2014 Process and Thought in Composition (1980) by Frank J. D\u2019Angelo<\/p>\n \u00bb\u00a0<\/strong> <\/span>Beyond the sentence, the analyses of paragraphs by Francis Christensen illustrate the fundamental grammatical principles of coordination and subordination in the structure of discourse. \u2014 A Conceptual Theory of Rhetoric (1975) by Frank J. D\u2019Angelo<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”5 Logical Division” _builder_version=”4.24.2″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”14px|14px|14px|14px|true|true” border_radii=”on|9px|9px|9px|9px” border_width_all=”8px” border_color_all=”#1258b2″ global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n This section covers how I primarily view a paragraph. Why? As I write, I frequently use two keyboard clicks to turn 2 paragraphs into 1 or 1 paragraph into 2. Every paragraph is a logical division, and the only requirement is that it must have unity. This aligns with Bain\u2019s original definition: A paragraph is a \u201ccollection of sentences with unity of purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n Teaching division is one of the most critical aspects of teaching writing. To be clear, I primarily teach division as I teach prewriting. As students write across the curriculum, division is more of a feeling. You begin a point, and when you feel you have finished the point\u2014you indent. However, I also teach division in rewriting for students who don\u2019t create effective paragraphs.<\/p>\n One of the most valuable skills a writing teacher can have is being able to identify the divisions in unparagraphed or poorly paragraphed text. (I expand on this below in \u201cA Final Note: Understanding Reparagraphing.\u201d)<\/p>\n Every division must be a logical division. Even in the \u201cShort and Lively\u201d paragraph style, the point made in each paragraph must be logically different from the paragraph before and after it, even though they may be addressing the same main point. The following quotes address the paragraph as a logical division.<\/p>\n \u00bb\u00a0<\/strong> <\/span>Writers paragraph for a variety of reasons\u2014for example, to change tone, to shift rhythm, or to emphasize a point. The most important reason, however, is for logical considerations. Understanding the logical basis of paragraphing is of primary importance in developing in the writer a sense of \u201cform consciousness.\u201d \u2014 Process and Thought in Composition (1980) by Frank J. D\u2019Angelo<\/em><\/p>\n \u00bb\u00a0<\/strong> <\/span>Surely the truth lies somewhere between. We invent paragraphs, and we discover paragraphs. At times we are highly conscious of the reasons for indenting a particular group of words as a paragraph; at times we are not. \u2014 A Conceptual Theory of Rhetoric (1975) by Frank J. D\u2019Angelo<\/em><\/p>\n \u00bb\u00a0<\/strong> <\/span>So soon as an essay is developed beyond a certain length, it falls naturally into paragraphs corresponding more or less to some division of the subject into parts. A paragraph is a part which, during the process of composition, has defined itself as one distinct stage in the progress of the essay. \u2014 A College Manual of Rhetoric (1905) by Charles Sears Baldwin A.M., Ph.D.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00bb\u00a0<\/strong> <\/span>One way is to see the paragraph as a division of a longer piece of writing\u2026 Paragraphing is the process of differentiating the parts within the whole to achieve the writer\u2019s purpose. \u2014 Process and Thought in Composition (1980) by Frank J. D\u2019Angelo<\/em><\/p>\n In a moment, we will look at an experiment Arthur A. Stern used to do where English teachers disagreed on how a text should be paragraphed. Ironically, I also agree with this quote from D\u2019Angelo, which presents a different side of the issue. This quote reveals that most experienced writers can identify logical changes that create logical divisions\u2014or paragraphs.<\/p>\n \u00bb\u00a0<\/strong> <\/span>Give an experienced writer a completed piece of writing, one that has been written without traditional paragraph divisions, and he or she can invariably divide that piece of writing into thought units that make sense. Although some writers may disagree slightly as to where some of the paragraph divisions should be, the extent to which they will agree is amazing. \u2014 Process and Thought in Composition (1980) by Frank J. D\u2019Angelo<\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”6 Style” _builder_version=”4.24.2″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”14px|14px|14px|14px|true|true” border_radii=”on|9px|9px|9px|9px” border_width_all=”8px” border_color_all=”#1258b2″ global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Paragraphing creates voice and style. I fully accepted this as accurate when I noticed that many high-scoring student essays on state writing assessments used a short and lively paragraph style. Evidently, these students knew how to create writing that people enjoyed reading. That\u2019s style and voice. Skilled writers create a rhythm and feeling of beginning, middle, and ending using emphasis, climax, and even ellipses. Let\u2019s look at some quotes!<\/p>\n \u00bb\u00a0<\/strong> <\/span>Paragraph structure is part and parcel of the structure of the discourse as a Whole; a given stadium becomes a paragraph not by virtue of its structure but because the writer elects to indent, his indentation functioning, as does all punctuation, as a gloss upon the overall literary process under way at that point. Paragraphs are not composed; they are discovered. To compose is to create; to indent is to interpret. \u2014 A Discourse-centered Rhetoric of the Paragraph (1966) by Paul C. Rodgers, Jr<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u00bb\u00a0<\/strong> <\/span>Surely the truth lies somewhere between. We invent paragraphs, and we discover paragraphs. At times we are highly conscious of the reasons for indenting a particular group of words as a paragraph; at times we are not. \u2014 A Conceptual Theory of Rhetoric (1975) by Frank J. D\u2019Angelo<\/em><\/p>\n \u00bb\u00a0<\/strong> <\/span>Rhetoric\u2019s proper task is to understand why indentations occur when they do, rather than to devise some Procrustean [enforcing conformity against what\u2019s natural] formula for governing the behavior of sentences between breaks, and to insist upon applying it over and over again throughout all written discourse. What we need is a philosophy of paragraph punctuation, a flexible, open-ended discourse-centered rhetoric of the paragraph. \u2014 A Discourse-centered Rhetoric of the Paragraph (1966) by Paul C. Rodgers, Jr.<\/em><\/p>\n Arthur Stern did one of my favorite experiments. In short, he removed the paragraphing from a text and asked groups of English teachers to reparagraph it. Here are the results. You will never understand paragraphs if you don\u2019t understand this section.<\/p>\n \u00bb\u00a0<\/strong> <\/span>We discover that some students have divided the passage into two paragraphs, others into three, still others into four or five. What is more, nearly all of these possible divisions seem justifiable\u2014they \u201cfeel right.\u201d Most surprisingly of all is the fact that only five students out of the more than 100 who have tried the experiment have paragraphed the passage precisely as Brooks and Warren originally did.<\/p>\n These results are hardly earthshaking, I realize. They prove, if they prove anything, only that different students have different intuitions about paragraphing and that many of these intuitions turn out to be equally acceptable, equally \u201ccorrect.\u201d But perhaps a few facts I have so far neglected to mention will make this discovery less trivial than it may at first appear.<\/p>\n First of all, the students who took part in the exercise were not college freshmen; they were teachers of English. Secondly, most of them were committed to the theory, promulgated by many handbooks, that the paragraph is a purely \u201clogical\u201d unit of discourse. They believed, that is to say, that a paragraph is a group of sentences developing one central idea. They believed that good paragraphs always (or usually) contain identifiable topic sentences which always (or usually) occur toward the beginning of the paragraphs. They believed that a well-developed paragraph is \u201ca composition in miniature.\u201d They believed, accordingly, that good English teachers should concentrate on teaching their students to write good paragraphs, because good paragraphs are really good essays writ small. \u2014 When Is a Paragraph? (1976) by Arthur A. Stern<\/p>\n \u00bb\u00a0<\/strong> <\/span>As every experienced writer knows, paragraphing helps establish a tone or \u201cvoice.\u201d (Editors know this, too. That is why they frequently re-paragraph a writer\u2019s prose to bring it into conformity with their publication\u2019s image.) Short paragraphs appear to move more swiftly than long ones; short paragraphs lighten up the appearance of a page, whereas long ones, containing the identical information, give the page a heavier, more scholarly look. \u2014 When Is a Paragraph? (1976) by Arthur A. Stern<\/em><\/p>\n This next quote is a response to Stern\u2019s work.<\/p>\n \u00bb\u00a0<\/strong> <\/span>What we learn from this [Stern\u2019s paragraph experiment] is that paragraph breaks are a rhetorical choice the writer makes. Rhetorical choices convey meaning, because they\u2019re not just about following rules or adhering to conventions. When you end one paragraph and start the next one, you\u2019re telling your reader something about your ideas. Paragraphs, topic sentences, and closing sentences are all examples of signposting\u2014telling your reader something about how your ideas fit together. \u2014 Paragraph Focus as Signposting (2016) by Dr. Kathryn Tucker<\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text no Boarder” _builder_version=”4.24.2″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Decent writers know where to indent. They make a point and then indent. It\u2019s that simple. Why do so many teachers have difficulty teaching students this aspect of paragraph writing? I\u2019ve heard many teachers say something along these lines, \u201cI know when to indent. I can feel it. Why am I having so much difficulty teaching my students this?\u201d<\/p>\n Years ago, as a new teacher, I had many fourth-grade students whom I could get to write an entire page of coherent text but who wouldn\u2019t indent even once. This drove me crazy! Because the text was undivided, it was incoherent to me. To be honest, unparagraphed text repulses me even today. Of course, these days, I can see beyond the lack of paragraphing and identify where the divisions should be. The text is genuinely incoherent if there are no hidden logical divisions.<\/p>\n Teaching this aspect of dividing a text is impossible if you can\u2019t see and understand logical breaks. It\u2019s not enough to just feel the breaks.<\/p>\n Sadly, early in my teaching career, I didn\u2019t have the required knowledge to grasp or explain the breaks in logic. Although I could find places to indent in my students\u2019 writing, I couldn\u2019t explain why they were good places to indent. Therefore, when I tried to teach paragraph writing this way, my students thought I was simply choosing random places to indent. I couldn\u2019t explain to them otherwise. So, they would start indenting randomly. It went from bad to worse.<\/p>\nSo, What Is a Paragraph? A Little Review<\/h2>\n
Paragraph as Verb vs. Paragraph as Noun<\/h3>\n
Paragraphing Styles<\/h3>\n
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Paragraphing Styles in Different Genres<\/h3>\n
\u200bSo, What Is a Paragraph? The Main Section<\/h2>\n
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1. The Paragraph as Punctuation<\/h2>\n
2. The Paragraph as an Expanded or Extended Sentence<\/h2>\n
3. The Paragraph as a Mini-Essay<\/h2>\n
4. The Paragraph as a Hierarchy of Ideas<\/h2>\n
5. The Paragraph as a Logical Division with Unity of Purpose<\/h2>\n
6. The Paragraph as Style and Voice<\/h2>\n
A Final Note: Understanding Paragraphing and Reparagraphing: Finding Places to Divide<\/h2>\n