ClearTips: Powerful paragraphs

Establish pairs across paragraphs

Similar to repeating a word or phrase, mirroring elements from one paragraph to the next not only aids transition, but links the point of one paragraph to the next.

CIA officials used to have all sorts of irritating habits. If offered a perfectly good Chateauneuf-du-Pape at a Georgetown dinner party, they would praise it—by stressing their dissent from the "universal opinion" that unblended reds are better. If told of an especially good trattoria in Rome, they might express much gratitude for the information—and deplore their own laziness in always going to the same old Sabatini they had first encountered while vacationing in Italy with their parents. Even more irritating was the propensity of first-generation CIA officials for interjecting into any remotely relevant conversation memories of Groton, Yale, or skiing holidays in St. Moritz.
     There is none of that sort of thing anymore. Today's CIA people are not wine snobs-in fact, many of them prefer beer, while others refrain from even coffee, as befits good Mormons. Nor are they partial to foreign foods in funky trattorias-cheeseburgers are more their style. Instead of being Ivy League showoffs, they are quietly proud of their state colleges, however obscure these might be.

What people drink, where they eat, and where they went to school make the point about how CIA officials have changed.

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