Principles of Paragraph Development

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3. PRINCIPLES OF PARAGRAPH DEVELOPMENT
Whether you are writing a
sentence, paragraph or a longer
composition, you must observe the
principles of unity, coherence, and
emphasis

4. Unity
A paragraph has unity when all its
elements are related to one
another and to the topic sentence.
No element should digress from the
writer’s main idea and enough
details are included for
completeness. A unified paragraph
deals with only one main idea and

5. Coherence
Coherence refers to the logical relationship
among the elements in a paragraph. It
provides a smooth flow of meaning through
the orderly arrangement of ideas.

6. Ways of Ordering Ideas In A Paragraph

7. There are generally five ways of ordering ideas in
a paragraph: chronological or time order (for narration
or process analysis), enumeration or listing
order, spatial order (for description or for showing
location in space), casual order and logical order
(inductive-from particular instances to a generalization
or deductive- from a generalization to particulars).
Coherence is also achieved through the use of
structural devices such as transitions, correct
pronouns, repetition of key ideas and parallelism.

8. Emphasis
Emphasis refers to the giving of focus to the most
important elements or ideas. This can be achieved by
proper positioning if elements (the beginning and
end of the paragraph for the most important ideas),
repetition or proportion (giving more space to the
more important idea).