Unit 12 Paragraph unity

Paragraph-Unity I. Introduction to the Paragraph A paragraph is a group of related sentences that develops one central idea. In itself it is an independent unit, but it also functions as part of a larger work--a theme or a chapter. A paragraph may appear to be a simple construction, but underlying it is a definite structure of parts and connections. A paragraph usually has the basic structure of Introduction-Discussion-Conclusion. Introduction: You introduce your subject and indicate what you are going to say about it. This is also called the topic sentence. Discussion: You expand and discuss your subject, and fill in details about it. Conclusion: You sum up and reach some conclusion about your subject. Introduction (The topic sentence) Body (Discussion) Conclusion Now, let us look at this basic three part structure in greater detail. II. Presentation A. The Introduction (The topic sentence) The topic sentence presents the topic or main idea of the paragraph, and the topic sentence is the crucial part which attaches the paragraph to the whole and also defines the function of the sentences it controls and manages. Topic sentences supply the direction. Other sentences add evidence, make refinements, and develop the main idea, but as a rule, they do not control the purpose of the paragraph. A clear paragraph demands a successful topic sentence. A topic sentence which expresses the controlling idea clearly is one of the best ways to hold the paragraph together. If the controlling idea in the topic sentence is clear, then it will be easier to organize the ideas which support, explain, or analyze your point of view. So, to start your paragraph, you state your controlling idea in a topic sentence--the place where you tell your readers “what you are going to tell them”. For the beginning writer, it is best to make the topic sentence the first sentence in the paragraph. A topic sentence at the beginning of a paragraph usually states a general thought. The sentences that follow exemplify, modify, qualify, or develop it in a variety of ways. Main thought ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​__________________ ______________________________ Sentences which support and develop the main thought ________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ Study the following example, 1.Learning a foreign language has changed. 2.(Not so long ago, students would sit with pens in hand, writing the basic forms of a language, learning structures they would never be able to speak. In that same classroom today, pens and notebooks have been put away. The spoken sounds of foreign tongue fill the room. Today the last skill learned--writing a foreign language--comes as a natural and possible part of the total language--learning process. Yet, just a few years ago, the last skill learned was the first skill mastered today--speaking a foreign tongue.) 1. Topic sentence 2. Supporting details B. The Body of the Paragraph Now that you have announced your controlling idea in the topic sentence, you need to develop it. You need to discuss, explain, support, or prove the controlling idea. You may use facts, reasons, illustrations, comparisons, contrasts, definitions, etc. . But you must remember a well-written paragraph must contain three important elements: unity, coherence, and adequate development completeness a. Unity The most important quality of a good paragraph is that it constitutes an independent unit of thought. In composing a paragraph, you discuss only one topic or one aspect of a topic. This characteristic of a paragraph is known as UNITY, or singleness of purpose. Because a paragraph concentrates on a signal idea, all the facts, examples, and reasons used to develop that idea must be relevant. If you introduce material that is not directly related to the paragraph’s topic, then you run the risk of losing your reader. Study the following two paragraphs and see what unity is. Japanese women have changed since the war. They have become prettier, brighter, more decisive, and more outspoken. The young people certainly are far more logical and far less sentimental than the prewar generations. Some regret this. They think women, in gaining their freedom, have lost their femininity-their modesty, their warmth, and their shy grace. They accuse Women of being drawn to superficial things. A modern Japanese woman , they say , instead of trying to enrich her inner self , is in a mad scramble to ape anything that is new and foreign-fashions, cosmetics, hairdos, rock-and-roll. And there are many Japanese who say that a caricature of an up-to-date wife is one who sits beside a washing machine in a house that has no hot running water. Is the paragraph unified? Because it deals only with the subject of Japanese women, we can say that it is, If the writer had added information about Japanese manufacturing or Japanese transportation, the paragraph would not have been unified. The vegetable and fruit and flower merchants are surrounded by baskets of purple eggplant, green peppers, strings of tiny silvery onions, heads of bitter Indian spinach, and a dozen Indian vegetables for which I don’t even know the English names. I had forgotten about the many kinds of fruit in India--it is only during the brief, intense summer that you see much variety of fruit in Moscow. In Russia, as winter approaches, all vegetables except for potatoes and the pervasive cabbage in soup seem to disappear from the menus. This brief paragraph presents a contrast. That is, it points out the differences in the availability of fruits and vegetables in India and in Russia. It has unity because it speaks only of fruits and vegetables, not of jewelry or automobiles, and it limits its discussion of countries to India and Russia. Look at the following paragraph, which lacks unity: The psychiatric nurse deals with dangerous mental patients, but a pathological personality does not know right from wrong. The behavior of patients may be violent, angry, or normal. The new psychiatric wing of the hospital has been open two months. What exactly is this writer trying to say? We cannot tell. Each sentence expresses a different, underdeveloped idea: 1) job of the psychiatric nurse 2) definition of a pathological personality 3) behavior of patients 4) history of the new psychiatric wing By contrast, the following paragraph develops and clarifies only one central idea; the essential characteristics of a psychiatric nurse. The psychiatric nurse deals with dangerous mental patients, pathological personalities who may explode into violence at any moment. For this reason, the nurse must remain on guard at all times. When a patient displays anger or violence, she cannot respond in kind but must instead show tolerance and understanding. Furthermore, she must be able to recognize attempts at deception. Sometimes a mentally ill person, prior to launching an attack, acts in a completely normal way in order to deceive the intended victim. The nurse must recognize this behavior and be alert for possible assault. In this version, the topic sentence, stated at the outset, charts the course of the paragraph, and every other sentence relates to that idea. As a result, the paragraph stays on track. Here is another example of a paragraph that lacks unity. The letter grades of D and F should not be recorded on elementary school children’s report cards. First of all, students who are doing poorly feel bad enough without being reminded of the fact that they have failed. The child may identify very strongly with the grade on the card, responding with “I am a D” or “I am worth an F—in other words, nothing.” Actually, the grade only represents the student’s work in the class, not the whole person; but that fact is hard to get across, especially to a person with low self-esteem. Low self-esteem is a serious problem among elementary age children. They often feel that they are not capable of learning at all, partly because their home environment does not support them. Education is often not very important to their parents, and thus what the children are doing in school receives no reinforcement in their home life. The result is that the children begin to feel as if they have split personalities, one personality at home and one at school. Another problem with the grade of D or F is that it does not tell the child very much. A student who is doing so poorly as to receive a D needs individual attention that is specifically directed at his or her academic problems. The overall evaluation of D acts merely as negative reinforcement, causing his or her failure instinct to come out and set this person in the path of continued failures. Here are the explanations: The sentences that throw off the paragraph do not stick to the point of the predicate in the topic sentence. They take up a side issue. Most likely, the point of them, the relationships between parents and children and the lack of reinforcement at home, would belong in an essay on elementary school letter grades that contains this paragraph. The writer could have improved the paragraph by taking out these confusing sentences (italicized and underlined), which do not flow with the established sequence of ideas. The following is an example of a paragraph from a short story that lacks unity. Notice how the irrelevant information, which is in italics, destroys the unity of the paragraphs. Then read the paragraphs without the italics and notice how markedly the writing improves: The deadly routine of my studies and work turned the past year into unbearable boredom. Bach day proceeded with unerring predictability, from sunrise to sunset. If I were to use a symbol to reflect my life this past year, it would be one gigantic yawn--so dull the schedule by which I was tyrannized. Of course, there were always a few bright occident’s that invaded the boredom, but they were rare. Every morning at P l OO a. m. the alarm dragged me out of bed so that I could race to school in time to answer Prof. Huber’s Western Civilization roll call at 8:07 a. m.. For the next 50 minutes I listened to the Prof. Drone through his battered and stained lecture notes on the meaning of civitas, the First Triumvirate, or the Barbatian Invasion. I took plenty of notes so that I could quote verbatim on the next test. Then I moved on to the next class, introduction to Psychology, where the instructor always got hung up on “standard deviation”, “chi square”, and “correlation” because those were his graduate work specialties. Then I moved on to the next class, and the next--all equally numbing to my senses. III. Exercises Directions: Underline the topic sentence in each of the following paragraph. Then decide whether each paragraph is unified. If not, identify the problem by circling any sentence that is not clearly related to the controlling idea. In the space provided, briefly explain the problem. 1. More than three centuries after the Indians first showed Captain John Smith how to grow it, pumpkin is still regarded as an incredibly versatile ingredient. You can wake up to a plate of pumpkin pancakes or pumpkin muffins spread with tangy pumpkin preserves, Or follow a dinner of pork with pumpkin sauce with a slice of mouth-watering pumpkin apricot brandy pound cake or pumpkin cheesecake. It’s little wonder that in 1683 a Colonist rhymed: “We had pumpkins in the morning and pumpkins at noon. If it were not for pumpkins, we’d be undone soon.” (Answer: This paragraph is unified) 2. Many professional musicians complain that the violins, cellos, and other string instruments produced today cannot match those crafted at the close of the Renaissance by a group of Italians working in the city of Cremona. The sound from many modern instruments has an unpleasant edge when certain notes are played, similar to the effect of a hundred violins all playing the same note with one ever so slightly out of tune. In addition, most of today, s instruments are not well balanced--some notes are richer and more resonant than others--and their sound does not carry as well as that from a Cremonese instrument. Violins are today made throughout the world l no single country or community has cornered the market on fine instrument making. (Answer: This paragraph is not unified because the last two sentences do not support the topic sentence.) 3. For thousands of years human beings have communicated with one another first in the language of dress. Long before I am near enough to talk to you on the street , in a meeting , or at a party, you announce your sex, age and class to me through what you are wearing--and very possibly give me important information (or misinformation) as to your occupation, origin, personality, opinions, tastes, sexual desires and current mood, I may not be able to put what I observe into words, but I register the information unconsciously p and you simultaneously do the same for me. By the time we meet and converse we have already spoken to each other in older and more universal tongue. (Answer: This paragraph is unified) Directions: If the idea in the second sentence logically follows the idea in the first sentence, place a (+) on the line at the right. If the idea in the second sentence does not logically follow the idea in the first sentence, place a (-) Example: Moll filled out a form at the employment agency. She was hoping to find a job. + l. The dormitory was clean, There was dust under the beds. ______ 2. Juan never goes out on weeknights. He went to the movies Thursday. ______ 3. Something kept Doris awake. A tree was shaking in the wind. ______ 4. Ellen listened closely to Mrs. Rodriguez. She was interested in what her lawyer had to say. ______ 5. I pulled off my shirt and pants. I tied my necktie. ______ 6. Maria turned off the light. She read another chapter of the book. ______ 7. The boat moved away from the dock. The captain ordered the crew to raise the anchor. ______ 8. Maonuel was lost in Boston. His suitcase felt heavy in his hands. ______ Answer: 1. – 2. – 3. + 4. + 5. – 6. – 7. – 8.+