, are
governed by the three principles which have guided in the structure of
whole compositions. Whether the purpose be to prove or to narrate, to
enforce a conclusion or to illustrate, if a paragraph is to produce
its greatest effect, it should have unity, it should be well massed,
and it should be coherent.

It is not necessary now to define unity in a paragraph; the need is
rather to notice the offenses against it that frequently occur. They
are manifestly two: too much may be included, and not all may be
included. The accompanying circumstance of the one, not necessarily
the cause, however, is often a very long paragraph, and of the other a
short paragraph.

Unity.

Violations of the unity of a paragraph most frequently result from
including more than belongs there. The theme has been selected; it is
narrow and concise. When one begins to write, many things crowd in
pell-mell. Impressions, which come and go, we hardly know how or why,
are the only products of most minds. Impressions, not shaped and
logical thoughts, make up the mixed confusion frequently called a
theme. The writer puts down enough of these impressions to make a
paragraph, and then goes on to do it again, fancying that so he is
really paragraphing. Even should he keep within the limits of his
theme, he cannot in this way paragraph. As everything upon a subject
does not belong in a theme, so everything in a theme may not be
introduced indiscriminately into any paragraph.

The other danger lies in the short paragraph. It does not allow a
writer room to say all he has to say upon the topic, so it runs over
into the next paragraph. All of the thought-paragraph should appear in
one division on the page. This error is not so common as the former.
Examples of each are to be found on pages 152-157.

Need of Outline.

The remedy for this confusion clearly is hard thinking; and a great
assistance is the outline. Before a word is written, think through the
theme; get clearly the purpose of each paragraph in the development of
the whole. Then write just what the paragraph was intended to include,
and no more. More will be suggested because the parts of a whole theme
are all closely related, but that more belongs somewhere else. Make a
sharp outline, and follow it.

Mass.

A paragraph should be so arranged that the parts which arrest the eye
will be important.[37] When a person glances down a page, his eye
rests upon the beginning and the end of