Organizing Principles of Paragraphs

A paragraph is a group of sentences that presents one main idea about a topic. There are three main
parts of a paragraph:
 Topic Sentence: Topic sentence is also called thesis statement. This sentence presents the main
theme around which the whole paragraph develops. It helps the reader know what the
paragraph is all about.
 Supporting Details: The sentences that substantiate the topic sentence. These sentences may
include examples, evidence or convincing points to support the main idea.
 Concluding Sentence: It gives the final impression and prepares the reader for the transition
to the next paragraph.

Inductive and Deductive are two main approaches of presenting information in a paragraph. Look at
the following paragraphs:
1. The story of an unknown English Professor is viral on social media now-a-days. On the
blackboard, the professor wrote, “A woman without her man is nothing.” and asked the students
to punctuate the sentence correctly. All the male students wrote, “A woman, without her man,
is nothing.” All the female students wrote, “A woman: without her, man is nothing.” The story
teaches how powerful punctuation is! The place of a punctuation mark in a sentence decides
the meaning. A wrong or misplaced punctuation mark may result in a horrible interpretation.

2. The place of a punctuation mark in a sentence decides the meaning. A wrong or misplaced
punctuation mark may result in a horrible interpretation. If “Are you going to eat, Rohan?”
becomes ‘Are you going to eat Rohan’, aren’t you a man-eater? Would you do such a horrible
thing as to eat Rohan, a human being? This suggests that care must be taken while using a
punctuation mark in a sentence.

Both the above paragraphs emphasize the importance of punctuation but the approaches are different.

The first paragraph moves from a particular information (the two examples of the same punctuation put
at different places in a sentence) to a generalized statement (that the place of punctuation mark in a
sentence decides the meaning). This approach where first, the particular instances/claims are presented
and discussed and then the particular details lead to general observation towards the end of the
paragraph is called inductive approach of paragraph writing.

The second paragraph begins with the general statement i.e. ‘The place of a punctuation mark in a
sentence decides the meaning’ and then moves to particular examples to justify the topic sentence. This
approach where first general observation(s) are presented and substantiated with the help particular
instances/examples and then the details lead to the concluding remark is called deductive approach of
paragraph writing.

Stop and Think

You have just gone through two different approaches of paragraph writing. Re-read and think which
approach has been used here to explain the two approaches.
 Creating Coherence and Cohesion
Coherence connects different parts of a paragraph. It makes the paragraph easy to understand. If a
paragraph is coherent, it is clear and carefully considered, and each part of it connects or follows in a
natural or sensible way. Coherence in a paragraph can be achieved with the help of logical and verbal
bridges.
 Logical Bridges (Coherence): All the sentences of a paragraph should revolve around the main
theme. They should be logically connected with each other. Look at the following paragraph
and see if there is any unrelated sentence:

My name is Rajan. I belong to Noida. I have done my schooling from Allahabad.

Currently, I am pursuing B. Tech. in Cloud Computing. My father is a businessman.
My mother is a teacher. I love doing programming in C++.

Here, Rajan is introducing himself. The first four sentences and the last sentence are logically
connected with each other. But fifth and sixth sentences are making this paragraph incoherent,
since they break the logical bridge that was created till sentence no. 4. This is so because Rajan
is telling about himself but in between he abruptly starts talking about his father and mother.

The key point here is that the same idea should be carried over from sentence to sentence.

 Verbal Bridges (Cohesion): Pronouns, repetition of key words, transition words and use of
synonymous words create verbal bridges.
a. Pronoun References: Since a pronoun refers back to what comes before in the text, it is a
natural verbal bridge. A wrong or misplaced pronoun may create ambiguity, hence may
make a paragraph incoherent. See, for example:
Rohan was suffering from fever. He was admitted to the City Hospital. He had to
undergo many medical tests. Finally, Dengue was diagnosed. After ten days in-hospital
allopathic medication, they suggested him to take ayurvedic medicines.

In the above paragraph the pronoun ‘they’ is creating ambiguity. Who does ‘they’ refer to
–‘to the doctors’, ‘to the nurses’, or ‘to the relatives’?

Now look at the following sentence:

I saw a man yesterday whose beard was long.

In the above sentence ‘whose’ is functioning as a relative pronoun. A relative pronoun

always refers to its antecedent (to what comes immediately before it). So in this sentence,
‘whose’ will refer to ‘yesterday’, presenting ‘yesterday’ as a human being having a beard.
‘Yesterday I saw a man whose beard was long.’ would be a better construction.

The use of proper pronoun reference helps the author keep the subject running, and avoid
monotonous repetitions of nouns.

b. Transition Words: Placed at or near the beginning of a sentence, transition words establish
relationship between two sentences, group of sentences or between paragraphs. These
words decide the direction of the further discussion, and thus maintain coherence. Here is
a list of frequently used transition words:
 To show contrast: on the other hand, nevertheless, however, on the contrary, whereas,
despite the fact, even though, although, whereas etc.
 To add information: in addition, moreover, similarly, again, furthermore, etc.
 To introduce an illustration: for example, to illustrate, for instance, etc.
 To indicate conclusion: therefore, as a result, consequently, to sum up, etc.
 To draw attention: indeed, in fact, accordingly, etc.
  To show reaction: fortunately, unfortunately, etc.

c. Repetition of Keywords: At times, repetition of keywords, generally nouns, can create

powerful cohesive effects. The keywords help an author connect all the sentences of a paragraph
into a whole. For instance, the word ‘Bollywood’ in the paragraph given below serves as a
coherence marker.
The move refers to the unique feature of Indian English, extensively shown in the
Bollywood film English Vinglish. There are many Bollywood movies like Jab we met,
War Chor Na Yaar, etc. with their titles in Hinglish. Such titles are suggestive of the
type of language used in the Bollywood industry.

d. Use of Synonymous Words: Sometimes repetition may be boring or look awkward to the
audience, hence, synonyms or the near synonymous words may be used alternatively to create
coherence.