Writing Academic English 4th Edition

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18

Unitl' and Coherence

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Animportantelementofa goodparagraphisunity.Unitymeansthata paragraph

discussesoneandonlyonemainideafrombeginningtoend.Forexample,ifyour

paragraphisabouttheadvantagesofowninga compactcar,discussonlythat.Do

notdiscussthedisadvantages.Furthermore,discussonlyoneadvantage,suchasgas

economy,ineachparagraph.Ifyoubegintodiscussanotheradvantage,starta new

paragraph.Sometimesit is possibletodiscussmorethanoneaspectofthesameidea

inoneparagraphiftheyarecloselyrelatedtoeachother.Forexample,youcould

discussgaseconomyandlowmaintenancecostsinthesameparagraphbecausethey

arecloselyrelated,butyoushouldnotdiscussbothgaseconomyandeasierparking

inthesameparagraphbecausetheyarenotcloselyrelated.

Thesecondpartofunityisthateverysupportingsentencemustdirectlyexplain

orprovethemainidea.Forexample,ina paragraphaboutthehighcostofprescrip-

tiondrugsintheUnitedStates,youcouldmentionbuyingdrugsfrompharmacies