{"id":518,"date":"2017-07-20T18:55:33","date_gmt":"2017-07-20T18:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/olemiss-writing100\/?post_type=chapter&p=518"},"modified":"2025-08-15T17:32:05","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T17:32:05","slug":"logic-in-paragraphs","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/olemiss-writing100\/chapter\/logic-in-paragraphs\/","title":{"raw":"Logic in Paragraphs","rendered":"Logic in Paragraphs"},"content":{"raw":"

Logic and Structure<\/h2>\r\nFor the most part, we write paragraphs without a specific method or plan of organization. When you sit down to write, you don\u2019t usually tell yourself, \u201cI am going to write eight paragraphs that are four sentences long each.\u201d Effective and mature writing is more organic.\r\n\r\nApplying logic and structure to paragraphs comes in the revision stage. When you have completed a draft, one way to tackle organization and coherence in your revision is to study the logic and construction of individual paragraphs.\r\n\r\nThere are plenty of ways to classify these systems of logic and structure, but we\u2019re going to look at four: rank order, spatial, chronological, and general to specific.[footnote]Toby Fulwiler. (2007). The Working Writer<\/em>. 5th Edition. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall. pp 197[\/footnote]\r\n

Rank Order<\/h3>\r\nParagraphs can be organized to build toward a main point, with the most important part of the message coming at the end. This last point is sometimes the key\/topic sentence, but not always. This method of organization is useful in building up to a problem or claim that will be further developed in later paragraphs. Read the following example:\r\n
\u201c<\/strong>While Blackboard does a lot to help students and teachers stay in contact, maintain a schedule, and share assignments and resources, there are still quite a few problems with the learning management system. Blackboard, for instance, seems to break down in many ways when users use Safari\u2014the default browser for all Apple products. Problems also arise when students submit projects as .pages documents\u2014a format the LMS does not support through its grading portal. Most importantly, however, many teachers use Blackboard differently, which can lead to confusion for students who are looking for a \u2018uniform\u2019 experience in their coursework across all of their classes.\u201d<\/blockquote>\r\n

Spatial<\/h3>\r\nSpatial organization for paragraphs makes sense for exposition or description. If you are describing the appearance of a sculpture or statue, it makes sense to write the description in a way that's analogous to the appearance of the statue itself. Consider the following example:\r\n
\u201cAttached to my back-bedroom wall is a small wooden rack dangling with red and turquoise necklaces that shimmer as I enter. Just to the right of the rack, billowy white curtains frame a large window with a sill that ends just six inches from the floor. The peace of such an image is a stark contrast to my desk, sitting to the right of the window, layered in textbooks, crumpled papers, coffee cups, and an overflowing ashtray. Turning my head to the right, I see a set of two bare windows that frame the trees outside the glass like a three-dimensional painting. Below the windows is an oak chest from which blankets and scarves are protruding. Against the wall opposite the billowy curtains is an antique dresser, on top of which sits a jewelry box and a few picture frames. A tall mirror attached to the dresser takes up much of the lavender wall.\u201d[footnote]https:\/\/pb.openlcc.net\/writingforcollege\/chapter\/spatial-order\/[\/footnote]<\/blockquote>\r\n

Chronological<\/h3>\r\nJust like you would describe physical appearance using spatial paragraph organization, you would describe sequential events chronologically. If you were writing a paragraph about all the things you ate on Tuesday, it makes sense to start with breakfast and end with your midnight snack. Take a look at the following example:\r\n
\u201cAfter the boycott, [Rosa] Parks and her husband moved to Hampton, Virginia, and later permanently settled in Detroit, Michigan. Parks\u2019 work proved to be invaluable in Detroit\u2019s Civil Rights Movement. She was an active member of several organizations which worked to end inequality in the city. By 1980, after consistently giving to the movement both financially and physically, Parks, now widowed, suffered from financial and health troubles. After almost being evicted from her home, local community members and churches came together to support Parks. On October 24th, 2005, at the age of 92, she died of natural causes, leaving behind a rich legacy of resistance against racial discrimination and injustice.\u201d[footnote]https:\/\/www.womenshistory.org\/education-resources\/biographies\/rosa-parks)[\/footnote]<\/blockquote>\r\n

General to Specific<\/h3>\r\nA good metaphor for the general to specific method of organizing a paragraph is the top part of an hourglass. The top of the hourglass has a lot of sand, but only a small amount of sand passes through the middle. Consider the following example:\r\n
\u201cSolutions for marine pollution include prevention and cleanup. Disposable and single-use plastic is abundantly used in today\u2019s society, from shopping bags to shipping packaging to plastic bottles. Changing society\u2019s approach to plastic use will be a long and economically challenging process. Cleanup, in contrast, may be impossible for some items. Many types of debris (including some plastics) do not float, so they are lost deep in the ocean. Plastics that do float tend to collect in large \u201cpatches\u201d in ocean gyres. The Pacific Garbage Patch is one example of such a collection, with plastics and microplastics floating on and below the surface of swirling ocean currents between California and Hawaii in an area of about 1.6 million square kilometers (617,763 square miles), although its size is not fixed. These patches are less like islands of trash and, as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says, more like flecks of microplastic pepper swirling around an ocean soup. Even some promising solutions are inadequate for combating marine pollution. So-called \u201cbiodegradable\u201d plastics often break down only at temperatures higher than will ever be reached in the ocean.[footnote](https:\/\/education.nationalgeographic.org\/resource\/marine-pollution\/<\/a>)[\/footnote]<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\n

Practice: Logic in Paragraphs<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nRead the following paragraph from Mark Twain\u2019s autobiography and answer the question below about its logic and structure:\r\n\r\n\u201cI can see the farm yet with perfect clearness. I can see all its belongings, all its detail: the family room of the house with a \u201ctrundle\u201d bed in one corner and a spinning-wheel in another, a wheel whose rising and falling wail, heard from a distance, was the mournfulest of all sounds to me and made me homesick and low-spirited and filled my atmosphere with the wandering spirits of the dead; the vast fireplace, piled high on winter nights with flaming hickory logs from whose ends a sugary sap bubbled out but did not go to waste, for we scraped it off and ate it; the lazy cat spread out on the rough hearthstones; the drowsy dogs braced against the jambs and blinking; my aunt in one chimney comer, knitting; my uncle in the other, smoking his corn-cob pipe; the slick and carpetless oak floor faintly mirroring the dancing flame-tongues and freckled with black indentations where fire-coals had popped out and died a leisurely death; half a dozen children romping in the background twilight. . . .\u201d[footnote](https:\/\/en.wikisource.org\/wiki\/Page:Boys_Life_of_Mark_Twain.djvu\/31)[\/footnote]\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n[ohm_question hide_question_numbers=1]309439[\/ohm_question]\r\n\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"

Logic and Structure<\/h2>\n

For the most part, we write paragraphs without a specific method or plan of organization. When you sit down to write, you don\u2019t usually tell yourself, \u201cI am going to write eight paragraphs that are four sentences long each.\u201d Effective and mature writing is more organic.<\/p>\n

Applying logic and structure to paragraphs comes in the revision stage. When you have completed a draft, one way to tackle organization and coherence in your revision is to study the logic and construction of individual paragraphs.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of ways to classify these systems of logic and structure, but we\u2019re going to look at four: rank order, spatial, chronological, and general to specific.[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Rank Order<\/h3>\n

Paragraphs can be organized to build toward a main point, with the most important part of the message coming at the end. This last point is sometimes the key\/topic sentence, but not always. This method of organization is useful in building up to a problem or claim that will be further developed in later paragraphs. Read the following example:<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>While Blackboard does a lot to help students and teachers stay in contact, maintain a schedule, and share assignments and resources, there are still quite a few problems with the learning management system. Blackboard, for instance, seems to break down in many ways when users use Safari\u2014the default browser for all Apple products. Problems also arise when students submit projects as .pages documents\u2014a format the LMS does not support through its grading portal. Most importantly, however, many teachers use Blackboard differently, which can lead to confusion for students who are looking for a \u2018uniform\u2019 experience in their coursework across all of their classes.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Spatial<\/h3>\n

Spatial organization for paragraphs makes sense for exposition or description. If you are describing the appearance of a sculpture or statue, it makes sense to write the description in a way that’s analogous to the appearance of the statue itself. Consider the following example:<\/p>\n

\u201cAttached to my back-bedroom wall is a small wooden rack dangling with red and turquoise necklaces that shimmer as I enter. Just to the right of the rack, billowy white curtains frame a large window with a sill that ends just six inches from the floor. The peace of such an image is a stark contrast to my desk, sitting to the right of the window, layered in textbooks, crumpled papers, coffee cups, and an overflowing ashtray. Turning my head to the right, I see a set of two bare windows that frame the trees outside the glass like a three-dimensional painting. Below the windows is an oak chest from which blankets and scarves are protruding. Against the wall opposite the billowy curtains is an antique dresser, on top of which sits a jewelry box and a few picture frames. A tall mirror attached to the dresser takes up much of the lavender wall.\u201d[2]<\/sup><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chronological<\/h3>\n

Just like you would describe physical appearance using spatial paragraph organization, you would describe sequential events chronologically. If you were writing a paragraph about all the things you ate on Tuesday, it makes sense to start with breakfast and end with your midnight snack. Take a look at the following example:<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the boycott, [Rosa] Parks and her husband moved to Hampton, Virginia, and later permanently settled in Detroit, Michigan. Parks\u2019 work proved to be invaluable in Detroit\u2019s Civil Rights Movement. She was an active member of several organizations which worked to end inequality in the city. By 1980, after consistently giving to the movement both financially and physically, Parks, now widowed, suffered from financial and health troubles. After almost being evicted from her home, local community members and churches came together to support Parks. On October 24th, 2005, at the age of 92, she died of natural causes, leaving behind a rich legacy of resistance against racial discrimination and injustice.\u201d[3]<\/sup><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

General to Specific<\/h3>\n

A good metaphor for the general to specific method of organizing a paragraph is the top part of an hourglass. The top of the hourglass has a lot of sand, but only a small amount of sand passes through the middle. Consider the following example:<\/p>\n

\u201cSolutions for marine pollution include prevention and cleanup. Disposable and single-use plastic is abundantly used in today\u2019s society, from shopping bags to shipping packaging to plastic bottles. Changing society\u2019s approach to plastic use will be a long and economically challenging process. Cleanup, in contrast, may be impossible for some items. Many types of debris (including some plastics) do not float, so they are lost deep in the ocean. Plastics that do float tend to collect in large \u201cpatches\u201d in ocean gyres. The Pacific Garbage Patch is one example of such a collection, with plastics and microplastics floating on and below the surface of swirling ocean currents between California and Hawaii in an area of about 1.6 million square kilometers (617,763 square miles), although its size is not fixed. These patches are less like islands of trash and, as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says, more like flecks of microplastic pepper swirling around an ocean soup. Even some promising solutions are inadequate for combating marine pollution. So-called \u201cbiodegradable\u201d plastics often break down only at temperatures higher than will ever be reached in the ocean.[4]<\/sup><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

Practice: Logic in Paragraphs<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Read the following paragraph from Mark Twain\u2019s autobiography and answer the question below about its logic and structure:<\/p>\n

\u201cI can see the farm yet with perfect clearness. I can see all its belongings, all its detail: the family room of the house with a \u201ctrundle\u201d bed in one corner and a spinning-wheel in another, a wheel whose rising and falling wail, heard from a distance, was the mournfulest of all sounds to me and made me homesick and low-spirited and filled my atmosphere with the wandering spirits of the dead; the vast fireplace, piled high on winter nights with flaming hickory logs from whose ends a sugary sap bubbled out but did not go to waste, for we scraped it off and ate it; the lazy cat spread out on the rough hearthstones; the drowsy dogs braced against the jambs and blinking; my aunt in one chimney comer, knitting; my uncle in the other, smoking his corn-cob pipe; the slick and carpetless oak floor faintly mirroring the dancing flame-tongues and freckled with black indentations where fire-coals had popped out and died a leisurely death; half a dozen children romping in the background twilight. . . .\u201d[5]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n