ClearTips: Powerful paragraphs

Make a strong point

Powerful paragraphs need more than obvious subjects—they need strong points. Usually stated explicitly at the start, sometimes implied, the point is a statement of opinion or fact, which you then support with the other sentences in your paragraph.

The growth of America's capital in recent years has indeed been remarkable. The District of Columbia bar had fewer than 1,000 members in 1950, now it has 61,000. The number of journalists in Washington soared from 1,500 to 12,000 over the same period. The staff of Congress has roughly doubled since 1979. On one estimate, 91,000 lobbyists of one sort or another grace the Washington area with their presence.

By almost any measure, Chile in 1995 has an economy that it is difficult to find fault with. Inflation is in single digits and declining. Foreign reserves at $14.8 billion are high and rising. The government consistently runs a healthy budget surplus. Exports grew by more than 25% last year. Foreign investment was $4.7 billion (9.1% of GDF). The unemployment rate, less than 6%, is one of the lowest in Latin America.

"Ulysses" has a long history of translation. It was greeted as a great work of literary modernism when it appeared in its highly original English in 1922. But it was available in German and French before it was legally for sale in Britain or the United States. Even the Latvians have their own version; the Japanese have four. Chinese translators never got around to it. After the Communist victory in 1949, such a work would have been dangerous.

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