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Paragraph Structure
Aparagraphis a groupofrelatedsentencesthatdiscussone(andusuallyonlyone)
mainidea.A paragraphcanbeasshortasonesentenceoraslongastensentences.
Thenumberofsentencesisunimportant;however,theparagraphshouldbelong
enoughtodevelopthemainideaclearly.
A paragraphmaystandbyitself.Inacademicwriting,youoftenwritea paragraph
toanswera testquestionsuchasthefollowing:"Definemanagementbyobjective,
andgiveoneexampleofit fromthereadingyouhavedoneforthisclass."A para-
graphmayalsobeonepartofa longerpieceofwritingsuchasanessayora book.
Wemarka paragraphbyindentingthefirstwordabouta halfinch(fivespaceson
a typewriterorcomputer)fromtheleftmargin.
Thefollowingmodelcontainsalltheelementsofa goodparagraph.Readitcare-
fullytwoorthreetimes.ThenanswertheWritingTechniquequestionsthatfollow,
whichwillhelpyouanalyzeitsstructure.