Paragraph development

Coherence presides over texts development (expository) paragraph development Methods of paragraph development fall into three loose groups: Those that stay strictly within the topic (e.g offering examples / repeating it) Techniques introducing another theme for comparison or contrast Techniques exploring the ramifications of the topic more fully (defining/establisging cause-effect relations, analysing a concept into its components)

Paragraph development patterns Illustration/restatement Comparison/contrast Cause / effect (Oxford guide)

Not the only possible classification According to Werlich, possible structures for thematic expansion are: general-to-particular text structuring cause-effect text structuring listing text structuring additive listing Another characteristic is structural listing The constitutive elements of the state are territory, people and… Territory is delimited by…. People refers to…

Illustration

Illustration

Illustration As far as the home is concerned, the biggest change in what P.G. Wodenhouse called «browsing and sluicing» is… the odd form our food is in nowadays when we buy it. (topic giving introduction) Sequence forms: Coffee / Fish / Soup / Potatoes [theme: hyponym of food] Comes as /arrives as + SHAPE [rheme: syntactic parallelism]

Explicit forms to introduce examples For instance As a case in point An example to the point is Say Thus Consider …

Restatement It is difficult for one accustomed to the law and order of the present day to understand the dangers which threatened the Jakobean traveller. The seas swarmed with pirates… There were pirates in the Atlantic, to intercept… There were Pirates in the West Indies, roving for… There were pirates in the Orkneys, preying upon BUT there were more pirates in the Mediterranean… THERE WERE + VERBAL PHRASE [NON FINITE] Pattern variation signals climatic significance

Comparison/contrast Cause/effect See handout 10

Comparison /Contrast