ClearTips: Powerful paragraphs

Undermine

By undermining the point of the first paragraph, you can propel your argument in the next.

You can either be subtle:

For the first time since 1985, the Geneva-based World Economic Forum has rated the U.S. economy the most competitive in the world. The U.S. Council on Competitiveness, a private coalition of leaders from industry, labor and education, recently concluded that "the United States has significantly strengthened its competitive position in critical technologies during the past five years."
     But just like word of Mark Twain's death, reports of America's industrial revival are exaggerated. The Sonys, Respironics, and Medrads are isolated islands of success in a sea of economic stagnation. They are what Richard Florida, director of the Center for Economic Development at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, calls deceptive examples of "reindustrialization amidst deindustrialization, pockets of growth that co-exist with the continued decline of some sectors and firms."

or blatant:

Nippon Steel's Yawata works on the island of Kyushu might stand as a symbol of post-war Japan. In its heyday in the early 1970s, when the economy was still booming and costs were low, the Yawata works employed 46,000. Just 6,400 people work there today. The country's big blast-furnace steel makers have been elbowed aside by minimills, which are technologically more advanced, and by rivals from countries where costs are lower.
     There is one catch with this tale: it is not true. Although employment has indeed fallen in Japan's five integrated steel makers, they are thriving. Against all expectations, Nippon Steel, Kawasaki Steel, Sumitomo Metal Industries, Kobe Steel and Nippon Kashuha have brought production costs to within a whisker of the world's most efficient producer, South Korea's Pohang Iron & Steel Company (POSCO). The five can now churn out hot-rolled coil at about $300 a tonne compared with POSCO's $270 a tonne.

In the example below, a question does the undermining:

The results are visible on the streets of Warsaw, Prague, and Budapest. Shops are full of western goods. Where grim-faced policemen once stared down pedestrians, street vendors now hawk their wares. The Communist Party's former headquarters in Warsaw houses Poland's infant stock exchange. Prague's Wenceslas Square is festooned with colourful advertisements. Hundreds of thousands of local entrepreneurs have started small businesses. Scores of western law firms, consultants and accountants are setting up offices. From all appearances, business is booming.
     Or is it? By most measures, Eastern Europe is in the grip of a prolonged and savage recession. After declining by 8% or so last year, the five countries' GDPs are expected to drop another 8% this year. Industrial output has declined even faster, by 17% last year and probably 11% this year. Like all statistics about Eastern Europe, these figures are endlessly disputed and have to be taken with a large pinch of salt. They may paint too grim a picture because they underestimate the growth of private businesses. Yet these countries are clearly in economic trauma.

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