THE techniques presented here, refined in the workshops I’ve conducted over the past fifteen years, are intended to help you write paragraphs that are unified, coherent, and well developed. The questions about identifying a paragraph’s topic and point—and about determining whether each of a paragraph’s sentences bears on that point—should help you spot problems and quickly solve them. The patterns of paragraph development should allow you to inject your writing with variety and interest. And the suggested transitions between paragraphs should enable you to extend the coherence of your argument, making it easier for your readers to follow. If you run across exemplars of the paragraph models identified here—or find interesting variants, indeed new species—please send them to me at bruce@cdinet.com or browse into (www.cdinet.com/AmericanWritingInstitute). I’ll try to plug them into the next edition.
I’d like to acknowledge the contributions of my colleagues at the American Writing Institute: Amy Cracknell, Andrea Brunholzl, Jessica Moore, Erika Schelble, Alison Smith, Kelli Ashley, and the interns Brendan McCarthy, Adam Calderon, Jessica Henig, and Ana Dahlman. I’d also like to acknowledge those of my editorial colleagues at Communications Development who reviewed the manuscript throughout its many stages: Meta de Coquereaumont, Alison Strong, Paul Holtz, Daphne Levitas, and Heidi Gifford. And I’d like to thank Xan Smiley and The Economist for the permission to reproduce the piece attached at the back and the many writers credited with the individual paragraphs I’ve used as examples.