you the donkey is out
but at this point the donkey began to bray loudly there that is
the donkey braying now well said the justly indignant mehmed if you
would rather take my donkeys word than my word we can be friends
no longer and under no circumstances can i lend you anything.

59. a coroner was called upon to hold an inquest over the body of
an italian the only witness was a small boy of the same nationality
who spoke no english the examination proceeded thus where do you
live my boy the boy shook his head do you speak english another
shake of the head do you speak french another shake do you speak
german still no answer how old are you no reply have you father
and mother no reply do you speak italian the boy gave no sign well
said the coroner i have questioned the witness in four languages and
can get no answer it is useless to proceed the court is adjourned.

NOTE. Further exercise in punctuation may be had by copying without
the marks of punctuation selections from books, and afterwards
inserting the proper marks.

CHAPTER IX

THE PARAGRAPH

141. The PARAGRAPH is a connected series of sentences all dealing
with the development of a single topic. Where the general subject
under discussion is very narrow, the paragraph may constitute the
whole composition; but usually, it forms one of a number of subtopics,
each dealing with some subdivision of the general subject. For each
one of these subtopics a separate paragraph should be made.

The purpose of the paragraph is to aid the reader to comprehend
the thought to be expressed. The paragraph groups in a logical way
the different ideas to be communicated. It gives rest to the eye
of the reader, and makes clearer the fact that there is a change
of topic at each new paragraph.

142. PARAGRAPH LENGTH. There is no fixed rule governing the proper
length of the paragraph, but, probably, no paragraph need be more
than three hundred words in length. If the whole composition is not
more than two hundred and fifty words in length, it will not often
need to be subdivided into paragraphs. In a letter, paragraphing
should be more frequent than in other compositions.

Paragraphing should not be too frequent. If paragraphing is too
frequent, by making each minute subdivision of equal importance,
it defeats its purpose of grouping ideas about some general topic.

143. Sometimes a sentence or even a part of a sentence ma