8. Look over carefully some of the compositions given in the appendix, and comment on the choice of material, plan, beginning, ending, etc.

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CHAPTER III

THE PARAGRAPH.

18. What the Paragraph Is. If we look at the printed page of any book we notice that usually it is not solid, but is broken once or twice into what we call paragraphs. These paragraphs are not arbitrary devices adopted to catch the reader's eye. They have a much greater significance. Let us see, then, what the paragraph is, and why the printed page should be broken by paragraph divisions. If we turn for a moment to the two outlines of The Little Village of A, in the preceding chapter, we see that the second outline differs from the first in this respect, that certain ideas that were related to one another have been grouped under heads or topics, and that each topic is expressive of the ideas in its group. So our thoughts upon any matter, if developed at any length, break up naturally into groups of kindred ideas. If they do not our thinking is not clear-cut and logical. These groups seem to be natural divisions of the subject. Now, if the ideas of the several groups be developed into sentences, each sentence-group will constitute a paragraph. We may define a paragraph, then, as a group of sentences in which a single topic is developed.

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Let us take some theme, and see how the ideas which are to present in it group themselves. We will describe an old mill, and make such arrangement of the details as will form fitting paragraphs. Arranging these details as they suggest themselves to us, without regard to order or grouping, we will afterwards see how they are related to each other, and group them for paragraphs according to these relations.

1. The mill-wheel.

2. The belts and whirring wheels. 3. The dam. 4. The mill itself. 5. Shape of the mill. 6. The mill-pond. 7. The dusty miller. 8. Size of the mill. 9. The wagons of the farmers bringing grain. Situation of the mill. 11. The background of trees and hills.

IO.

Glancing over these items, we see at once that if the subject should be treated in the order in which the details are here given the description would be broken and incoherent, and the whole impression would be indistinct. Attempting to bring together those things which have some relation, we may unite them in paragraphs in some such fashion as follows:

First paragraph to include 10, II, and 9.

Each paragraph now includes items which we can hold together mentally, and forms a picture which is, for our purposes, complete. We shall not find it easy to think in groups of related ideas at first; but by being careful continually to have the purpose of each para

graph thought out before we begin writing upon it, we shall come to divide our subjects naturally into para graphs. If that division is not made in the first writing, it will be found difficult or impossible to make it afterwards without rearrangement and re-writing. That the reader may not pass over the break from paragraph to paragraph the first line of each should be indented an inch more than the other lines. On the printed page or in typewritten manuscript the indentation is less, because the uniformity of print makes a slight indentation sufficiently noticeable.

19. The Importance of Paragraphs. From what has been said in the preceding section, we see that a paragraph is a natural and necessary division of the subject, containing a complete discussion of a particular topic, and that the several paragraphs enable the writer to develop his theme logically. They are quite as significant to the reader. They show him the divisions of the subject which the writer wishes to make, and each conveys a sense of something complete. We see further that the paragraph has a double relation. It is a division of a larger topic, a dependent member of the whole composition, logically connected with the other members; and it is a complete whole in itself, a miniature composition, in which the several sentences are linked together, each sentence fulfilling the function apportioned to it. It is the latter relation with which we are now concerned. Let us, then, consider a paragraph for a moment, and see how the sentences com

posing it are linked together by a natural relation of one sentence to another and to the whole.

1. Once on the brink of the crater, we obtained a perfect view of this wonderful cavity in the mountain side. 2. It is one of the main features of the southwestern face of St. Elias. 3. It begins on the right in the splendid jagged arête leading up to a peak, which from another. point appears as a spur of the mountain. 4. At the foot

of this peak begins the upper rim of the crater, which descends gradually to the left in the shape of a spiral curve. 5. In its entire length it is frosted with a layer of snow over fifty feet thick; the effect of this is very striking. 6. The walls of the crater are composed of steep, bare rock, the surface of which is furrowed and stratified in a most wonderful manner. 7. The interior is filled with snow; its outlet is to the westward, where it feeds a large glacier. 8. There is good reason to believe that this amphitheater is of volcanic origin. 9. Several specimens of rock which were brought down seem to support this theory, while later in the day a cone was passed resembling in shape and general appearance those seen in the crater of Kilauea, on the island of Hawaii.

From sentence I to sentence 7 inclusive the paragraph is concerned with the description of the crater, each sentence adding definiteness to the picture, and having a close connection with the sentence preceding it. Sentences 8 and 9, dealing with the formation, could come only after the description, since it is the appearance of the crater that leads to this as a conclusion.

There are but these two divisions of thought in the paragraph, which may be outlined as follows: