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CHAPTER VII

PARAGRAPHS

Definition.

So far we have been dealing with whole compositions; we now take up
the study of paragraphs, sentences, and words. A paragraph in many
respects resembles a whole composition. It may be narrative,
descriptive, expositive, or argumentative. It must have a beginning, a
middle, and an end. It is constructed with regard to Unity, Mass, and
Coherence. And as a whole composition treats a single theme, so a
paragraph treats one division of a theme. It has been defined as a
composition in miniature. A paragraph is a sentence or a group of
sentences serving a single purpose in the development of a theme. The
purpose may be simply to announce the theme-subject, to make a
conclusion, to indicate a transition; but in the great majority of
cases its purpose is to treat a single topic. So true is this that
many authors, with good reason, define a paragraph as a group of
sentences treating a single topic.

Long and Short Paragraphs.

Nobody would have trouble in telling where on a page a paragraph began
and where it ended. The indention at the beginning, and usually the
incomplete line at the end, mark its visible limits. Unfortunately
there is no specified length after which the writer is to make a break
in the lines and begin a new paragraph. The length of a paragraph
depends on something deeper than appearances; as the topic requires a
lengthy or but a short treatment, as the paragraph may be a long
summary or a short transition, the length of a paragraph varies. Yet
there is one circumstance which should counsel an author to keep his
paragraphs within certain bounds: he should always have regard for his
readers. Readers shirk heavy labor. If a book or an article looks
hard, it is passed by; if it looks easy, it is read. If the paragraphs
be long and the page solid, the composition looks difficult; if the
paragraphs be short and the page broken, the piece looks easy. This
fact should advise a writer to make the page attractive by using short
paragraphs; provided, and the provision is important, he can so make
real paragraphs, divisions of composition that fully treat one topic.
These divisions may in reality be but one sentence, and they may just
as unquestionably be two pages of hard reading.

Successive paragraphs, each more than a page of ordinary print in
length,