- Make the paragraph the unit of composition: one paragraph to each topic.
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| If the subject on which you are writing is of slight extent, or if you intend to treat it very briefly, there may be no need of subdividing it into topics. Thus a brief description, a brief summary of a literary work, a brief account of a single incident, a narrative merely outlining an action, the setting forth of a single idea, any one of these is best written in a single paragraph. After the paragraph has been written, it should be examined to see whether subdivision will not improve it. |
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| Ordinarily, however, a subject requires subdivision into topics, each of which should be made the subject of a paragraph. The object of treating each topic in a paragraph by itself is, of course, to aid the reader. The beginning of each paragraph is a signal to him that a new step in the development of the subject has been reached. |
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| The extent of subdivision will vary with the length of the composition. For example, a short notice of a book or poem might consist of a single paragraph. One slightly longer might consist of two paragraphs: |
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- Account of the work.
- Critical discussion.
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| A report on a poem, written for a class in literature, might consist of seven paragraphs: |
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- Facts of composition and publication.
- Kind of poem; metrical form.
- Subject.
- Treatment of subject.
- For what chiefly remarkable.
- Wherein characteristic of the writer.
- Relationship to other works.
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| The contents of paragraphs C and D would vary with the poem. Usually, paragraph C would indicate the actual or imagined circumstances of the poem (the situation), if these call for explanation, and would then state the subject and outline its development. If the poem is a narrative in the third person throughout, paragraph C need contain no more than a concise summary of the action. Paragraph D would indicate the leading ideas and show how they are made prominent, or would indicate what points in the narrative are chiefly emphasized. |
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| A novel might be discussed under the heads: |
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- Setting.
- Plot.
- Characters.
- Purpose.
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| A historical event might be discussed under the heads: |
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- What led up to the event.
- Account of the event.
- What the event led up to.
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| In treating either of these last two subjects, the writer would probably find it necessary to subdivide one or more of the topics here given. |
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| As a rule, single sentences should not be written or printed as paragraphs. An exception may be made of sentences of transition, indicating the relation between the parts of an exposition or argument. |
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| In dialogue, each speech, even if only a single word, is a paragraph by itself; that is, a new paragraph begins with each change of speaker. The application of this rule, when dialogue and narrative are combined, is best learned from examples in well-printed works of fiction. |
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- As a rule, begin each paragraph with a topic sentence; end it in conformity with the beginning.
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| Again, the object is to aid the reader. The practice here recommended enables him to discover the purpose of each paragraph as he begins to read it, and to retain the purpose in mind as he ends it. For this reason, the most generally useful kind of paragraph, particularly in exposition and argument, is that in which |
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- the topic sentence comes at or near the beginning;
- the succeeding sentences explain or establish or develop the statement made in the topic sentence; and
- the final sentence either emphasizes the thought of the topic sentence or states some important consequence.
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| Ending with a digression, or with an unimportant detail, is particularly to be avoided. |
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| If the paragraph forms part of a larger composition, its relation to what precedes, or its function as a part of the whole, may need to be expressed. This can sometimes be done by a mere word or phrase (again; therefore; for the same reason) in the topic sentence. Sometimes, however, it is expedient to precede the topic sentence by one or more sentences of introduction or transition. If more than one such sentence is required, it is generally better to set apart the transitional sentences as a separate paragraph. |
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| According to the writer's purpose, he may, as indicated above, relate the body of the paragraph to the topic sentence in one or more of several different ways. He may make the meaning of the topic sentence clearer by restating it in other forms, by defining its terms, by denying the converse, by giving illustrations or specific instances; he may establish it by proofs; or he may develop it by showing its implications and consequences. In a long paragraph, he may carry out several of these processes. |
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| 1 Now, to be properly enjoyed, a walking tour should be gone upon alone. |
1 Topic sentence. |
| 2 If you go in a company, or even in pairs, it is no longer a walking tour in anything but name; it is something else and more in the nature of a picnic. |
2 The meaning made clearer by denial of the contrary. |
| 3 A walking tour should be gone upon alone, because freedom is of the essence; because you should be able to stop and go on, and follow this way or that, as the freak takes you; and because you must have your own pace, and neither trot alongside a champion walker, nor mince in time with a girl. |
3 The topic sentence repeated, in abridged form, and supported by three reasons; the meaning of the third ("you must have your own pace") made clearer by denying the converse. |
| 4 And you must be open to all impressions and let your thoughts take colour from what you see. |
4 A fourth reason, stated in two forms. |
| 5 You should be as a pipe for any wind to play upon. |
5 The same reason, stated in still another form. |
| 6 "I cannot see the wit," says Hazlitt, "of walking and talking at the same time. |
6-7 The same reason as stated by Hazlitt. |
| 7 When I am in the country, I wish to vegetate like the country," which is the gist of all that can be said upon the matter. |
| 8 There should be no cackle of voices at your elbow, to jar on the meditative silence of the morning. |
8 Repetition, in paraphrase, of the quotation from Hazlitt. |
| 9 And so long as a man is reasoning he cannot surrender himself to that fine intoxication that comes of much motion in the open air, that begins in a sort of dazzle and sluggishness of the brain, and ends in a peace that passes comprehension.—Stevenson, Walking Tours. |
9 Final statement of the fourth reason, in language amplified and heightened to form a strong conclusion. |
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| 1 It was chiefly in the eighteenth century that a very different conception of history grew up.
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1 Topic sentence. |
| 2 Historians then came to believe that their task was not so much to paint a picture as to solve a problem; to explain or illustrate the successive phases of national growth, prosperity, and adversity. |
2 The meaning of the topic sentence made clearer; the new conception of history defined. |
| 3 The history of morals, of industry, of intellect, and of art; the changes that take place in manners or beliefs; the dominant ideas that prevailed in successive periods; the rise, fall, and modification of political constitutions; in a word, all the conditions of national well-being became the subjects of their works.
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3 The definition expanded. |
| 4 They sought rather to write a history of peoples than a history of kings.
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4 The definition explained by contrast. |
| 5 They looked especially in history for the chain of causes and effects.
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5 The definition supplemented: another element in the new conception of history. |
| 6 They undertook to study in the past the physiology of nations, and hoped by applying the experimental method on a large scale to deduce some lessons of real value about the conditions on which the welfare of society mainly depend.—Lecky, The Political Value of History.
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6 Conclusion: an important consequence of the new conception of history. |
|
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| In narration and description the paragraph sometimes begins with a concise, comprehensive statement serving to hold together the details that follow. |
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| The breeze served us admirably. |
| The campaign opened with a series of reverses. |
| The next ten or twelve pages were filled with a curious set of entries. |
|
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| But this device, if too often used, would become a mannerism. More commonly the opening sentence simply indicates by its subject with what the paragraph is to be principally concerned. |
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| At length I thought I might return towards the stockade. |
| He picked up the heavy lamp from the table and began to explore. |
| Another flight of steps, and they emerged on the roof. |
|
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| The brief paragraphs of animated narrative, however, are often without even this semblance of a topic sentence. The break between them serves the purpose of a rhetorical pause, throwing into prominence some detail of the action. |
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- Use the active voice.
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| The active voice is usually more direct and vigorous than the passive: |
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| I shall always remember my first visit to Boston. |
|
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| This is much better than |
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| My first visit to Boston will always be remembered by me. |
|
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| The latter sentence is less direct, less bold, and less concise. If the writer tries to make it more concise by omitting "by me," |
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| My first visit to Boston will always be remembered, |
|
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| it becomes indefinite: is it the writer, or some person undisclosed, or the world at large, that will always remember this visit? |
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| This rule does not, of course, mean that the writer should entirely discard the passive voice, which is frequently convenient and sometimes necessary. |
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| The dramatists of the Restoration are little esteemed to-day. |
| Modern readers have little esteem for the dramatists of the Restoration. |
|
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| The first would be the right form in a paragraph on the dramatists of the Restoration; the second, in a paragraph on the tastes of modern readers. The need of making a particular word the subject of the sentence will often, as in these examples, determine which voice is to be used. |
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| The habitual use of the active voice, however, makes for forcible writing. This is true not only in narrative principally concerned with action, but in writing of any kind. Many a tame sentence of description or exposition can be made lively and emphatic by substituting a transitive in the active voice for some such perfunctory expression as there is, or could be heard. |
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| There were a great number of dead leaves lying on the ground. |
Dead leaves covered the ground. |
| The sound of the falls could still be heard. |
The sound of the falls still reached our ears. |
| The reason that he left college was that his health became impaired. |
Failing health compelled him to leave college. |
| It was not long before he was very sorry that he had said what he had. |
He soon repented his words. |
|
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| As a rule, avoid making one passive depend directly upon another. |
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| Gold was not allowed to be exported. |
It was forbidden to export gold (The export of gold was prohibited). |
| He has been proved to have been seen entering the building. |
It has been proved that he was seen to enter the building. |
|
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| In both the examples above, before correction, the word properly related to the second passive is made the subject of the first. |
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| A common fault is to use as the subject of a passive construction a noun which expresses the entire action, leaving to the verb no function beyond that of completing the sentence. |
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| A survey of this region was made in 1900. |
This region was surveyed in 1900. |
| Mobilization of the army was rapidly carried out. |
The army was rapidly mobilized. |
| Confirmation of these reports cannot be obtained. |
These reports cannot be confirmed. |
|
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| Compare the sentence, "The export of gold was prohibited," in which the predicate "was prohibited" expresses something not implied in "export." |
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- Put statements in positive form.
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| Make definite assertions. Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, non-committal language. Use the word not as a means of denial or in antithesis, never as a means of evasion. |
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| He was not very often on time. |
He usually came late. |
| He did not think that studying Latin was much use. |
He thought the study of Latin useless. |
| The Taming of the Shrew is rather weak in spots. Shakespeare does not portray Katharine as a very admirable character, nor does Bianca remain long in memory as an important character in Shakespeare's works. |
The women in The Taming of the Shrew are unattractive. Katharine is disagreeable, Bianca insignificant. |
|
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| The last example, before correction, is indefinite as well as negative. The corrected version, consequently, is simply a guess at the writer's intention. |
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| All three examples show the weakness inherent in the word not. Consciously or unconsciously, the reader is dissatisfied with being told only what is not; he wishes to be told what is. Hence, as a rule, it is better to express a negative in positive form. |
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| not honest |
dishonest |
| not important |
trifling |
| did not remember |
forgot |
| did not pay any attention to |
ignored |
| did not have much confidence in |
distrusted |
|
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| The antithesis of negative and positive is strong: |
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| Not charity, but simple justice. |
| Not that I loved Caesar less, but Rome the more. |
|
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| Negative words other than not are usually strong: |
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| The sun never sets upon the British flag. |
|
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- Omit needless words.
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| Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell. |
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| Many expressions in common use violate this principle: |
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| the question as to whether |
whether (the question whether) |
| there is no doubt but that |
no doubt (doubtless) |
| used for fuel purposes |
used for fuel |
| he is a man who |
he |
| in a hasty manner |
hastily |
| this is a subject which |
this subject |
| His story is a strange one. |
His story is strange. |
|
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| In especial the expression the fact that should be revised out of every sentence in which it occurs. |
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| owing to the fact that |
since (because) |
| in spite of the fact that |
though (although) |
| call your attention to the fact that |
remind you (notify you) |
| I was unaware of the fact that |
I was unaware that (did not know) |
| the fact that he had not succeeded |
his failure |
| the fact that I had arrived |
my arrival |
|
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| See also under case, character, nature, system in Chapter V. |
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| Who is, which was, and the like are often superfluous. |
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| His brother, who is a member of the same firm |
His brother, a member of the same firm |
| Trafalgar, which was Nelson's last battle |
Trafalgar, Nelson's last battle |
|
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| As positive statement is more concise than negative, and the active voice more concise than the passive, many of the examples given under Rules 11 and 12 illustrate this rule as well. |
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| A common violation of conciseness is the presentation of a single complex idea, step by step, in a series of sentences which might to advantage be combined into one. |
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| Macbeth was very ambitious. This led him to wish to become king of Scotland. The witches told him that this wish of his would come true. The king of Scotland at this time was Duncan. Encouraged by his wife, Macbeth murdered Duncan. He was thus enabled to succeed Duncan as king. (55 words.) |
Encouraged by his wife, Macbeth achieved his ambition and realized the prediction of the witches by murdering Duncan and becoming king of Scotland in his place. (26 words.) |
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