ClearTips: Powerful paragraphs

1. Unify Your Paragraphs Around Strong Points

Pointless. That is one of the biggest problems a writer has with paragraphs: failing to tell readers the point of what they're reading. Close behind is having a point with no support: a succession of loose, even unrelated, sentences.

The solution to the first problem is simply to add a strong point—and to make it obvious, usually by leading with it. The solution to the second problem is to make sure that every sentence in a paragraph bears on the point—and then to clarify the supporting sentences by using the traditional rhetorical devices of repeating a key term, counting the elements, signaling what's to come, and changing the structure of sentences. These devices also make your paragraphs easier to read-and more likely to stay in your reader's mind.

Back to Powerful paragraphs • Next