We read a short essay on Purdue about paragraphs that seems common sense but, reading it, it's amazing how much people violate the simple rules relating to paragraphs, myself included :)
Basically, the main thought is that each separate thought should have a separate paragraph. This is clear when you look at rudimentary APA style rules too; each rule about citations restarts again with each new paragraph.
One of the interesting things I noticed as I read the article was the similarities to the ideas I am teaching my Comm 101 students about how to organize their speeches to maintain clarity. They have to have each idea separated into a point with transitions or signposts (the exact same language) to move between each idea. numerous scantily.
These are mainly just ideas to keep in mind as we're writing so I'll continue to think about them.
Thanks for reflecting on this mini-reading. I think that if people abided by the information therein, the world would be full of better writing!
ReplyDelete