1. Paragraph Unity & Coherence
Group Members: Kendice Broaster, Wilson Lopez, Dilon Wright, and Shawn Crawford

2. What is a Paragraph?
A group of sentences that fleshes out a single idea.
To be effective, it must begin with a topic sentence, have sentences that support the main idea of that paragraph, and maintain a consistent flow.
Two essential elements that an effective paragraph should consistently contain: Unity & Coherence.

3. Paragraph Unity
To achieve unity, a paragraph must focus solely on a single idea, point, or argument that is being discussed; it’s usually the first sentence (Topic sentence). 

-Unity makes the relationship between the main idea of the paragraph and the thesis of the paper clear.
-Main idea of the paragraph is explained in details with supporting sentences.

4. Example of UN-UNIFIED paragraph:
Robert Bee wrote, “The Zeeland massacre illustrates the need for greater control and vigilance.” This is related to the thesis. Some 20,000 people disappeared from the villages. Financial mishandling can lead to great misfortune. Corruption in the government was exposed repeatedly to no avail. A police force, under orders to eliminate suspected terrorists, grabbed political dissidents and their families.

5. Example of UNIFIED paragraph:
 The pogrom of May 3, 1987 exemplifies how foreign aid funds were appropriated for repressive rather than social development purposes. On that day, some 20,000 people were abducted from villages in the countryside, charged as traitors and summarily executed. Then governor-for-life Zeely Zeelafsun had recently used $5 billion in aid to create a standing paramilitary police force. Without some restrictive control over the aid, human rights organizations were unable to prevent the buildup and unleashing of this disaster. Robert Bee, the director of the Development as Freedom Foundation wrote, “The Zeeland massacre illustrates the need for greater control and vigilance.”

6. Reasoning:
In the first paragraph it’s hard to tell what the topic sentence is, let alone how all the sentences belong together. The reader isn’t informed who Robert Bee is. The words “related to” in the second sentence don’t give the reader any sense of what the relationship is.
The second paragraph provides a tight topic sentence that links the main idea of the paragraph to the central argument of the paper. It eliminates details that do not fall under the topic and adds details that are relevant to the reader’s understanding of the events and their relation to foreign aid.

7. Paragraph Coherence Commonly referred to as the flow of your writing.
To achieve coherence, you should have a smooth connection or transition between the sentences in your paragraphs.
Six important means of achieving coherence in your paragraphs:
1. A natural or easily recognized order
2. Paragraph hook
3. Repetition of key words
4. Substitution of pronouns for key nouns
5. Parallelism
6. Transitional words and phrases

8. A Recognizable ordering of Information
Four common patterns of ordering sentences:
The Order of Time
-Details of main idea are arranged in chronological order Starting with the first step, and concluding with the last step.
The Order of Space
-When your subject is a physical object, you should select some orderly means of describing it: from left to right, top to bottom, inside to outside, and so forth.

9. CONTINUED.. Deductive Order
-A paragraph ordered deductively moves from a generalization to particular details that explain or support the general statement.
- begins with its topic sentence and proceeds to its supporting details.
Inductive Order
-An inductive paragraph begins with an examination of particular details and then concludes with a larger point or generalization about those details.
-Often ends with its topic sentence.

10. Paragraph Hooks
Stylistically, paragraph flow is usually accomplished by concrete topic sentences and smooth logical connections among ideas. Within paragraphs, writers connect ideas and foster coherence by exploiting the four methods:
Link the subjects of juxtaposed sentences
Link the end of one sentence to the beginning of the next sentence
Link sentences through implicit similarity, repetition, contrast, or causality
Establish a particular order and then follow through with that order

11. Examples
Mark Twain is established in the minds of most Ameri­ cans as a kindly humorist, a gentle and delightful "funny man." No doubt his photographs have helped promote this image. Everybody is familiar with the Twain face. He looks like every child's ideal grandfather, a dear old white-thatched gentleman who embodies the very spirit of loving-kindness. But Twain wrote some of the most savage satire ever produced in America.... The standard transition indicates clearly enough that the writer is preparing to take off with a new idea in opposition to the one in the first paragraph. But the transition is far too abrupt. The leap from one idea (how Twain looked) to the next (how he wrote) is simply too great to be handled by a mechanical transition.

12. Transitional Words & Phrases
Transitional words help the reader move smoothly from one thought to the next so that the ideas do not appear disconnected or choppy.
Here’s a list of common transitional words and phrases and their uses:
giving examples: for example, for instance, specifically, in particular, namely, another, other, in addition, to illustrate
comparison: similarly, not only but also, in comparison
contrast: although, but, while, in contrast, however, though, on the other hand, nevertheless
sequence: first second third, finally, moreover, also, in addition, next, then, after, furthermore, and, previously
results: therefore, thus, consequently, as a result

13. Notice the difference the use of transitional words makes in the following paragraph:
Without Transitions:
One of my favorite hobbies is traveling. I decided to get a job that paid me to travel because I just couldn’t afford my habit. I worked for a company called Offroad where I led bicycle trips. It was a really hard job. I got to spend two months living and working in France’s wine country. I went to the south and stood on the red carpet where they hold the Cannes Film Festival. Riding bikes all summer was great, and traveling around France was incredible. The job was too much work and not enough play. While it fed my traveling addiction, I knew that job wasn’t for me.
With Transitions:
One of my favorite hobbies is traveling. Therefore, I decided to get a job that paid me to travel because I just couldn’t afford my habit. I worked for a company called Offroad where I led bicycle trips. It was a really hard job. I got to spend two months living and working in France’s wine country. In addition, I went to the south and stood on the red carpet where they hold the Cannes Film Festival. Riding bikes all summer was great, and traveling around France was incredible; however, the job was too much work and not enough play. Thus, while it fed my traveling addiction, I knew that job wasn’t for me.

14. Repetition of Key Words
Important words or phrases (and their synonyms) may be repeated throughout a paragraph to connect the thoughts into a coherent statement.
Notice how many times the words owned and ownership are repeated in this paragraph:
Nobody owned any part of the land. Sotopo's father owned many cattle, and if the cows continued to produce calves, he might as well become the next chief. Old Grandmother owned the beautifully tanned animal skins she used as coverlets in winter. And Sotopo owned his polished hard-wood assegais. But the land belonged to the spirits who governed life; it existed forever, for everyone, and was apportioned temporarily according to the dictates of the tribal chief and senior headman. Sotopo's father occupied the hillside for the time being, and when he died the older son could inherit the loan -- land, but no person or family every acquired ownership.
From The Covenant by James Michener.

15. Pronouns Substituted for Key Nouns
-In your paragraph you might use a key noun in one sentence and then use a pronoun in its place in the following sentences.
Pronouns lessen the repetition of Key Nouns.

16. Notice the difference pronouns make on the following paragraph:
Without Pronouns:
“Harry had the best morning Harry‘d had in a long time. Harry was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, [as] Dudley and Piers were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn‘t fall back on Dudley and Piers‘ favorite hobby of hitting Harry. Harry and the Dursleys ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because Dudley‘s knickerbocker glory didn‘t have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought Dudley another knickerbocker glory and Harry was allowed to finish the first. Harry felt, afterward, that Harry should have known the joy was all too good to last. After lunch Harry and the Durlseys went to the reptile house. The reptile house was cool and dark, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. The largest snake in the place could have wrapped the largest snake‘s body twice around Uncle Vernon‘s car and crushed the car into a trash can – but at the moment the largest snake in the place didn‘t look in the mood. In fact, the largest snake in the place was fast asleep.”

17. With Pronouns:
“Harry had the best morning he‘d had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn‘t fall back on their favorite hobby of hitting him. They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his Knickerbocker glory didn‘t have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first. Harry felt, afterward, that he should have known it was all too good to last. After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon‘s car and crushed it into a trash can – but at the moment it didn‘t look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.”
From Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling.

18. Parallelism
Two or more sentence-elements that have the same logical office should be made grammatically parallel; i.e., if one is an infinitive, the other should be; if one is a relative clause, the other should be; if one is an appositive, the other should be; and so on.
  Examples of not parallel and parallel sentences: 
Not Parallel: The crowd began to wave handkerchiefs and shouting good-byes.  ["To wave" and "shouting," both objects of "began," are awkwardly dissimilar in form.]
Parallel: (a) The crowd began to wave handkerchiefs and to shout good-byes. [Or] (b) The crowd began waving handkerchiefs and shouting good-byes.  [The two objects of “began” are made parallel; in (a) they are both infinitives, in (b) they are both gerunds.] 

19. Not Parallel: I met many people there whom I had seen before but did not know their names.  ["Whom I had seen before" and "did not know their names," both qualifiers (logically) of "people," are awkwardly dissimilar in form.]
Parallel: I met many people there whom I had seen before but whose names I did not know.  [The two qualifiers of "people" are made parallel; both are relative clauses.]