Paragraph Unity

Is this a paragraph, or just a group of sentences?

Managers by and large fall into three categories: overseers, problem-solvers, and innovators. Overseers view their task as making sure that their employees stay busy doing routine activities. Their goal is to maintain the status quo, avoid major foul-ups, and keep under the radar of upper management. Problem-solvers, on the other hand, play a more active role in an organization by striving to remove barriers to efficiency. However, they are constantly in a reactive mode, responding to problems as they arise. Unlike the first two types of managers, innovators are proactive thinkers who study the organization and question the traditional methods of doing business. They see their role as developing new processes and generating new products, not tweaking current methods. Whereas the overseer avoids risk and the problem-solver tries to minimize risk, the innovator embraces calculated risk.

So what did you think?

Expand to find out!

Yes, I think we can agree that it’s a paragraph.

So what makes this a paragraph instead of just a group of sentences? For one thing, you might hesitatingly say, it’s the white space at the beginning. As obvious and superficial as that answer sounds at first, it’s important. Paragraphs are visual units. We insert line returns to give readers a break. Without paragraphs—that is, without units of thought broken into units of prose—readers would have a devilish time reading. Can you imagine reading an entire book without paragraphs as visual breaks? The psychological relief provided by paragraphs is immeasurable.

A paragraph is more than a visual unit, though. If paragraphs were just visual units, we could add white space every fifteen lines, disregarding the content and the progression of ideas. Paragraphs are mainly cognitive units—units of thought. A paragraph is a group of related sentences that develop a central idea, which is usually made explicit in a topic sentence. Together, the topic sentence and supporting sentences convey a developed thought and mark off one stage of thinking in a larger pattern.

Does the paragraph about managers above develop a central idea? If so, what is that idea? Is there a topic sentence? Where is it located: at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of the paragraph? Does the paragraph have unity—that is, does each sentence contribute to the central idea, or are there sentences that are irrelevant to the central idea? Does the paragraph have cohesion—that is, are the sentences tied together in such a way that we can easily move from one sentence to the next? These are the questions we will be examining in this unit as we analyze the characteristics of good paragraphing.

Paragraphs perform at least four functions:

– They provide a visual cue to readers

– They divide material into cognitively manageable chunks

– They create emphasis points

– They can introduce ideas, bridge ideas, expound upon ideas, or conclude a discussion.

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