{"id":978,"date":"2016-08-11T15:27:36","date_gmt":"2016-08-11T15:27:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/styleguide\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=978"},"modified":"2023-07-31T21:20:46","modified_gmt":"2023-07-31T21:20:46","slug":"the-perfect-paragraph","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/chapter\/the-perfect-paragraph\/","title":{"raw":"The Paragraph","rendered":"The Paragraph"},"content":{"raw":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">As Michael Harvey writes, paragraphs are, in essence, \"a form of punctuation, and like other forms of punctuation they are meant to make written material\u00a0easy to read.\u201d[footnote]Michael Harvey, <em>The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing<\/em>, Second Edition (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing, 2013), 70.[\/footnote]<\/span><span class=\"s2\">\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">Effective paragraphs are the fundamental units of academic writing; consequently, the thoughtful, multifaceted arguments that your professors expect depend on them. Without good paragraphs, you cannot clearly convey sequential points and their relationships to one another. Each paragraph provides space for a body of evidence that proves a particular aspect of your claim: the paragraph units need to seem focused within themselves, and linked between each other in a specific order that moves readers forward through your paper.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Many novice writers tend to make a sharp distinction between content and style, thinking that a paper can be strong in one and weak in the other, but focusing on paragraphs as organizational units\u00a0shows how content and style converge in deliberative academic writing. Your professors will view even the most elegant prose as rambling and tedious if there isn\u2019t a carefully constructed, cohesive argument unfolding logically across the topic sentences, backed up by the right evidence in the right place at the right time. <\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Topic Sentences<\/span><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-980\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/453\/2016\/08\/11152851\/6035228210_b11f29ae3f_z-1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"gold key\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/>In academic writing, readers expect each paragraph to open with\u00a0a sentence or two that captures its main point. They\u2019re often called \u201ctopic sentences,\u201d although<\/span><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0the phrase \u201ctopic sentence\u201d can make it seem like the paramount job of that sentence is simply to announce the topic of the paragraph, and that it must always be a single grammatical sentence. <strong>A topic sentence\u00a0expresses the central idea of the paragraph <em>in terms of the central thesis of your essay.<\/em><\/strong> And sometimes a question or a two-sentence construction functions as the key to those central concepts. <\/span><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Topic sentences in academic writing do two closely related things. First, they establish the main point that the rest of the paragraph supports. Second, they situate each paragraph within the sequence of the argument, a task that requires both transitioning from the prior paragraph and restating what this particular paragraph adds to the central thesis. Don't be afraid of repetition.<strong> If your topic sentences aren't repeating a key term or concept from your introduction, readers will feel disoriented because you appear to be asking them to think about something new rather than developing an idea they knew to expect.<\/strong> You are not trying to catch an academic reader unawares! If you do, the reader will get jumpy (\"What will the next paragraph ask me to think about?? Bananas? Aircraft carriers? Montenegro?\"). Feel free to impress your readers with the elegance, soundness, and complexity of your thinking, but don't subject them to topic sentence jump scares. <\/span><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Consider these two examples:[footnote]Etiology is the cause of a disease\u2014what\u2019s actually happening in cells and tissues\u2014while epidemiology is the incidence of a disease in a population.[\/footnote]<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">Version A: <\/span><\/strong><\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Now we turn to the epidemiological evidence. <\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">Version B: <\/span><\/strong><\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The epidemiological evidence provides compelling support for the hypothesis emerging from these etiological studies. <\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Both versions convey a topic; it\u2019s pretty easy to predict that the paragraph will be about epidemiological evidence, but only the second version establishes an argumentative point and puts it in context. This topic sentence\u00a0doesn\u2019t just announce the existence of\u00a0the epidemiological evidence; it shows how epidemiology is telling the same story as etiology. That story, or hypothesis, must be the thesis of this paper\u00a0(and giving that concrete sense of the stakes is probably the job of the following sentence, because not all ideas fit elegantly into one sentence, and there's no rule that says a topic sentence must be literally only one sentence). Seeing these two ideas connected will come as a relief to your reader, who wants reassurance that all this thinking about epidemiology and etiology will serve a coherent claim. Put another way, while Version A doesn\u2019t relate to anything in particular, Version B immediately suggests that the prior paragraph addresses the biological pathway (i.e., etiology) of a disease and that the new paragraph will bolster the emerging hypothesis with a different kind of evidence. As a reader, it\u2019s easier now to keep track of how the paragraph about cells and chemicals and such relates to the previous paragraph about populations in different places. Presumably, these two paragraphs occur in this order, and not the reverse order, because readers will move more easily in this argument from etiology to epidemiology than the other way around: topic sentences move the reader through the arc of your thesis in the most logical way possible, which often means that the more familiar or more foundational material structures the earlier paragraphs. <strong>Topic sentences shouldn't give the impression that your paragraphs follow an order no more compelling than \"Another thing I want to talk about is...\"<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textbox key-takeaways\">\r\n<h3>Key Takeaway<\/h3>\r\nThere are many possible reasons for ordering your paragraphs in certain ways; whatever reason you choose should be clear to your readers from the transitional logic you provide in the topic sentence(s).\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">A point to emphasize about key sentences is that academic readers expect them to be at the beginning of the paragraph, and not at the end. <strong>You don't build up to a topic sentence; you use it to set the scene, and then build up <em>evidence<\/em> to support it.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">This placement at the start helps readers comprehend your argument and easily follow the sequence of logic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Knowing this convention of academic writing can help you both write and read more effectively. When you\u2019re reading a complicated academic piece for the first time, you might want to go through reading only the first sentence or two of each paragraph to get the overall outline of the argument. Then you can go back and read all of it with a clearer picture of how each of the details fit in.\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">And when you\u2019re writing, you may also find it useful to write the first sentence of each paragraph (instead of a topic-based outline) to map out a thorough argument before getting immersed in sentence-level wordsmithing.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Cohesion and Coherence <\/span><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">With a key sentence established, the next task is to shape the body of your paragraph to be both cohesive and coherent. As Joseph Williams and Joseph Bizup\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">explain, <strong>cohesion is about the \u201csense of flow\u201d (how each sentence fits with the next), while coherence is about the \u201csense of the whole\" (how all the sentences in a paragraph focus on the same topic)<\/strong>.[footnote]Joseph M. Williams and Joseph Bizup. <em>Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace<\/em> 11th edition (New York: Longman, 2014), pp. 68, 71.\u2028[\/footnote]<span class=\"s2\">\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">For the most part, a text reads smoothly when it conveys a well organized argument or analysis. Focus first and most on your ideas, on crafting an ambitious analysis. The most useful guides advise you to first focus on getting your ideas on paper and then revising for organization and word choice\u00a0later, refining the analysis as you go. Thus, consider the advice here\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">as if you already have some rough text written and <\/span><span class=\"s1\">are in the process of smoothing out your prose to clarify your argument for both your reader and yourself.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3 class=\"p2\">Cohesion<\/h3>\r\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Cohesion refers to the flow from sentence to sentence. For example, compare these passages: <\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">Version A: <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Granovetter begins by looking at balance theory. If an actor, A, is strongly tied to both B and C, it is extremely likely that B and C are, sooner or later, going to be tied to each other, according to balance theory (1973:1363).\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">Bridge ties between cliques are always weak ties, Granovetter argues (1973:1364). Weak ties may not necessarily be bridges, but Granovetter argues that bridges will be weak. If two actors share a strong tie, they will draw in their other strong relations and will eventually form a clique. Only weak ties that do not have the strength to draw together all the \u201cfriends of friends\u201d can connect people in different cliques.<\/span><span class=\"s1\">[footnote]The quotation uses a version of an ASA-style in-text citation for Mark S. Granovetter, \u201cThe Strength of Weak Ties,\u201d\u00a0<em>American Journal of Sociology<\/em>\u00a078 (1973): 1360-80.[\/footnote]<\/span><span class=\"s2\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>Version B<\/strong>: <\/span><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Granovetter begins by looking at balance theory. In brief, balance theory tells us that if an actor, A, is strongly tied to both B and C, it is extremely likely that B and C are, sooner or later, going to be tied to each other (1973:1363). Granovetter argues that because of this, bridge ties between cliques are always weak ties (1973:1364). Weak ties may not necessarily be bridges, but Granovetter argues that bridges will be weak. This is because if two actors share a strong tie, they will draw in their other strong relations and will eventually form a clique. The only way, therefore, that people in different cliques can be connected is through weak ties that do not have the strength to draw together all the \u201cfriends of friends.\u201d[footnote]Guiffre. <em>Communities and Networks<\/em>, 98. [\/footnote]<\/span><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Version A has the exact same information as version B, but it is harder to read because it is less cohesive. The paragraph\u00a0in version B feels more cohesive because each sentence begins with old information and bridges to new information. Note that\u00a0\"old\" is a relative term: it might be something you've known for years, or it might only be as old as one sentence ago. <strong>You can convey a lot of new information to your readers if you keep presenting and linking\u00a0what's new to what's familiar, even if none of the material was \"old news\" to you five minutes earlier.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-982\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/453\/2016\/08\/11153000\/261480919_affdc1ca14_z-1-300x193.jpg\" alt=\"Drops of water on a spider's web\" width=\"300\" height=\"193\" \/>The first sentence in this example establishes the key idea of balance theory. The next sentence begins with balance theory and ends with social ties, which is the focus of the third sentence. The concept of weak ties connects the third and fourth sentences and the concept of cliques connects the fifth and sixth sentences. In Version A, in contrast, the first sentence focuses on balance theory, but then the second sentence makes a new point about social ties <i>before <\/i>telling the reader that the point comes from balance theory. The reader has to take in a lot of unfamiliar\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">information before learning how it fits in with familiar concepts. Version A is coherent, but the lack of cohesion makes it tedious to read.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textbox key-takeaways\">\r\n<h3>Key Takeaway<\/h3>\r\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The point is this: if you or others perceive a passage you\u2019ve written to be awkward or choppy, even though the topic is consistent, try rewriting it to ensure that each sentence begins with a familiar term or concept. If your points don\u2019t naturally daisy-chain together like the examples given here, consider numbering them. For example, you may choose to write, \u201cProponents of the legislation point to four major benefits.\u201d Then you could discuss four loosely related ideas without leaving your reader wondering how they relate.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<h3 class=\"p1\">Coherence<\/h3>\r\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">While <\/span><span class=\"s2\">cohesion is about the sense of flow, coherence is about the sense of the whole<\/span><\/strong><span class=\"s1\"><strong>.<\/strong> For example, here\u2019s a passage that is cohesive (from sentence to sentence) but lacks coherence: <\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Your social networks and your location within them shape the kinds and amount of information that you have access to. Information is distinct from data, in that it makes some kind of generalization about a person, thing, or population. Defensible generalizations about society can be either probabilities (i.e., statistics) or patterns (often from qualitative analysis). Such probabilities and patterns can be temporal, spatial, or simultaneous. <\/span><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-983\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/453\/2016\/08\/11153115\/228989707_4aedb3420c_z-1-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Metal chain receding into the distance\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/>Each sentence in the above passage starts with a familiar idea and progresses to a new one, but it lacks coherence\u2014a sense of being about one thing. In fact, it feels like an introduction to several main concepts of Communication crammed into one paragraph: this essay, if it were submitted in this form, would quickly overwhelm and exhaust its reader.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Note, though, that good writers often write passages like that when they\u2019re free-writing or using the drafting stage to cast a wide net for ideas. A writer weighing the power and limits of social network analysis may free-write something like that example and, from there, develop a more specific plan for summarizing key insights about social networks and then discussing them with reference to the core tenets of social science. As a draft, an incoherent paragraph often points to a productive line of reasoning\u2014you just have to continue thinking it through in order to identify a clear argumentative purpose for each paragraph. With its purpose defined, each paragraph becomes a lot easier to write. Coherent paragraphs aren\u2019t just about style; they are a sign of a focused, well developed analysis.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"p1\">Concluding a Paragraph<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Some guides advise you to end each paragraph with a specific concluding sentence\u2014i<\/span><span class=\"s2\">n a sense, to treat each paragraph as a kind of mini-essay\u2014but that\u2019s not a widely held convention. Most well written academic pieces don\u2019t adhere to that structure. The last sentence of the paragraph should certainly be in your own words (as in, not a quotation or paraphrase of somebody else's ideas about your topic), but as long as the paragraph succeeds in carrying out the task that it has been assigned by its topic sentence, you don\u2019t need to worry about whether that last sentence has an air of conclusiveness. For example, consider these paragraphs about the <\/span><span class=\"s1\">cold fusion controversy of the 1980s <\/span><span class=\"s2\">that appeared in a best-selling textbook<\/span><span class=\"s2\">:[footnote]Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch, <em>The Golem: What You Should Know About Science<\/em> 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Canto, 1998), 58.[\/footnote] <\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s2\">The experiment seemed straightforward, and there were plenty of scientists willing to try it. Many did. It was wonderful to have a simple laboratory experiment on fusion to try after the decades of embarrassing attempts to control hot fusion. This effort required multi-billion dollar machines whose every success seemed to be\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">capped with an unanticipated failure. 'Cold fusion' seemed to provide, as Martin Fleischmann said during the course of that famous Utah press conference, 'another route'\u2014the route of little science. <\/span><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In that example, the first and last sentences in the paragraph are somewhat symmetrical: the authors introduce the idea of accessible science, contrast it with big science, and bring it back to the phrase \u201clittle science.\u201d Here\u2019s an example from the same chapter of the same book that does not have any particular symmetry<\/span><span class=\"s1\">:[footnote]Ibid., 74.[\/footnote] <\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The struggle between proponents and critics in a scientific controversy is always a struggle for credibility. When scientists make claims which are literally 'incredible,' as in the cold fusion case, they face an uphill struggle. The problem Pons and Fleischmann had to overcome was that they had credibility as electrochemists but not as nuclear physicists. And it was nuclear physics where their work was likely to have its main impact. <\/span><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The last sentence of the paragraph doesn\u2019t mirror the first, but the paragraph is in great shape, coherently connecting its initial, general claim about credibility to the specific challenge to the credibility of Pons and Fleischmann. In general, don\u2019t trouble yourself with having the last sentence in every paragraph serve as a mini-conclusion if it feels forced. Instead, worry about developing each point sufficiently and making your logical sequence clear. Let your topic sentences do most of the work of keeping your essay coherent and giving it forward momentum.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textbox key-takeaways\">\r\n<h3>Key Takeaway<\/h3>\r\nRather than striving for mini-conclusions that might seem to pause your essay too heavily at the end of each paragraph if they are heavy-handed repetitions of the topic sentence, use the topic sentence of the <em>next<\/em> paragraph to bridge that gap of white space between paragraphs by regrouping where you are in your larger argument and clarifying how what you just finished saying relates to where your essay is heading in the coming paragraph. Topic sentences drive an essay forward; mini-conclusions sometimes stall it.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<h2 class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Conclusion: Paragraphs as Punctuation <\/span><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">To reiterate the initial point, it is useful to think of paragraphs as punctuation that organize your ideas in a readable way. Each paragraph should be an irreplaceable node within a coherent sequence of logic. <\/span><span class=\"s1\">In a successful, coherent college paper, the structure of each paragraph reflects its indispensable role within the overall piece. Make every bit count and have\u00a0each part situated within the whole.<\/span><\/p>","rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">As Michael Harvey writes, paragraphs are, in essence, &#8220;a form of punctuation, and like other forms of punctuation they are meant to make written material\u00a0easy to read.\u201d<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Michael Harvey, The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing, Second Edition (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing, 2013), 70.\" id=\"return-footnote-978-1\" href=\"#footnote-978-1\" aria-label=\"Footnote 1\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/span><span class=\"s2\">\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">Effective paragraphs are the fundamental units of academic writing; consequently, the thoughtful, multifaceted arguments that your professors expect depend on them. Without good paragraphs, you cannot clearly convey sequential points and their relationships to one another. Each paragraph provides space for a body of evidence that proves a particular aspect of your claim: the paragraph units need to seem focused within themselves, and linked between each other in a specific order that moves readers forward through your paper.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Many novice writers tend to make a sharp distinction between content and style, thinking that a paper can be strong in one and weak in the other, but focusing on paragraphs as organizational units\u00a0shows how content and style converge in deliberative academic writing. Your professors will view even the most elegant prose as rambling and tedious if there isn\u2019t a carefully constructed, cohesive argument unfolding logically across the topic sentences, backed up by the right evidence in the right place at the right time. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Topic Sentences<\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-980\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/453\/2016\/08\/11152851\/6035228210_b11f29ae3f_z-1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"gold key\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/>In academic writing, readers expect each paragraph to open with\u00a0a sentence or two that captures its main point. They\u2019re often called \u201ctopic sentences,\u201d although<\/span><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0the phrase \u201ctopic sentence\u201d can make it seem like the paramount job of that sentence is simply to announce the topic of the paragraph, and that it must always be a single grammatical sentence. <strong>A topic sentence\u00a0expresses the central idea of the paragraph <em>in terms of the central thesis of your essay.<\/em><\/strong> And sometimes a question or a two-sentence construction functions as the key to those central concepts. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Topic sentences in academic writing do two closely related things. First, they establish the main point that the rest of the paragraph supports. Second, they situate each paragraph within the sequence of the argument, a task that requires both transitioning from the prior paragraph and restating what this particular paragraph adds to the central thesis. Don&#8217;t be afraid of repetition.<strong> If your topic sentences aren&#8217;t repeating a key term or concept from your introduction, readers will feel disoriented because you appear to be asking them to think about something new rather than developing an idea they knew to expect.<\/strong> You are not trying to catch an academic reader unawares! If you do, the reader will get jumpy (&#8220;What will the next paragraph ask me to think about?? Bananas? Aircraft carriers? Montenegro?&#8221;). Feel free to impress your readers with the elegance, soundness, and complexity of your thinking, but don&#8217;t subject them to topic sentence jump scares. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Consider these two examples:<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Etiology is the cause of a disease\u2014what\u2019s actually happening in cells and tissues\u2014while epidemiology is the incidence of a disease in a population.\" id=\"return-footnote-978-2\" href=\"#footnote-978-2\" aria-label=\"Footnote 2\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[2]<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">Version A: <\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Now we turn to the epidemiological evidence. <\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">Version B: <\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The epidemiological evidence provides compelling support for the hypothesis emerging from these etiological studies. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Both versions convey a topic; it\u2019s pretty easy to predict that the paragraph will be about epidemiological evidence, but only the second version establishes an argumentative point and puts it in context. This topic sentence\u00a0doesn\u2019t just announce the existence of\u00a0the epidemiological evidence; it shows how epidemiology is telling the same story as etiology. That story, or hypothesis, must be the thesis of this paper\u00a0(and giving that concrete sense of the stakes is probably the job of the following sentence, because not all ideas fit elegantly into one sentence, and there&#8217;s no rule that says a topic sentence must be literally only one sentence). Seeing these two ideas connected will come as a relief to your reader, who wants reassurance that all this thinking about epidemiology and etiology will serve a coherent claim. Put another way, while Version A doesn\u2019t relate to anything in particular, Version B immediately suggests that the prior paragraph addresses the biological pathway (i.e., etiology) of a disease and that the new paragraph will bolster the emerging hypothesis with a different kind of evidence. As a reader, it\u2019s easier now to keep track of how the paragraph about cells and chemicals and such relates to the previous paragraph about populations in different places. Presumably, these two paragraphs occur in this order, and not the reverse order, because readers will move more easily in this argument from etiology to epidemiology than the other way around: topic sentences move the reader through the arc of your thesis in the most logical way possible, which often means that the more familiar or more foundational material structures the earlier paragraphs. <strong>Topic sentences shouldn&#8217;t give the impression that your paragraphs follow an order no more compelling than &#8220;Another thing I want to talk about is&#8230;&#8221;<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox key-takeaways\">\n<h3>Key Takeaway<\/h3>\n<p>There are many possible reasons for ordering your paragraphs in certain ways; whatever reason you choose should be clear to your readers from the transitional logic you provide in the topic sentence(s).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">A point to emphasize about key sentences is that academic readers expect them to be at the beginning of the paragraph, and not at the end. <strong>You don&#8217;t build up to a topic sentence; you use it to set the scene, and then build up <em>evidence<\/em> to support it.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">This placement at the start helps readers comprehend your argument and easily follow the sequence of logic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Knowing this convention of academic writing can help you both write and read more effectively. When you\u2019re reading a complicated academic piece for the first time, you might want to go through reading only the first sentence or two of each paragraph to get the overall outline of the argument. Then you can go back and read all of it with a clearer picture of how each of the details fit in.\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">And when you\u2019re writing, you may also find it useful to write the first sentence of each paragraph (instead of a topic-based outline) to map out a thorough argument before getting immersed in sentence-level wordsmithing.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Cohesion and Coherence <\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">With a key sentence established, the next task is to shape the body of your paragraph to be both cohesive and coherent. As Joseph Williams and Joseph Bizup\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">explain, <strong>cohesion is about the \u201csense of flow\u201d (how each sentence fits with the next), while coherence is about the \u201csense of the whole&#8221; (how all the sentences in a paragraph focus on the same topic)<\/strong>.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Joseph M. Williams and Joseph Bizup. Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace 11th edition (New York: Longman, 2014), pp. 68, 71.\u2028\" id=\"return-footnote-978-3\" href=\"#footnote-978-3\" aria-label=\"Footnote 3\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[3]<\/sup><\/a><span class=\"s2\">\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">For the most part, a text reads smoothly when it conveys a well organized argument or analysis. Focus first and most on your ideas, on crafting an ambitious analysis. The most useful guides advise you to first focus on getting your ideas on paper and then revising for organization and word choice\u00a0later, refining the analysis as you go. Thus, consider the advice here\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">as if you already have some rough text written and <\/span><span class=\"s1\">are in the process of smoothing out your prose to clarify your argument for both your reader and yourself.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p2\">Cohesion<\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Cohesion refers to the flow from sentence to sentence. For example, compare these passages: <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">Version A: <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Granovetter begins by looking at balance theory. If an actor, A, is strongly tied to both B and C, it is extremely likely that B and C are, sooner or later, going to be tied to each other, according to balance theory (1973:1363).\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">Bridge ties between cliques are always weak ties, Granovetter argues (1973:1364). Weak ties may not necessarily be bridges, but Granovetter argues that bridges will be weak. If two actors share a strong tie, they will draw in their other strong relations and will eventually form a clique. Only weak ties that do not have the strength to draw together all the \u201cfriends of friends\u201d can connect people in different cliques.<\/span><span class=\"s1\"><a class=\"footnote\" title=\"The quotation uses a version of an ASA-style in-text citation for Mark S. Granovetter, \u201cThe Strength of Weak Ties,\u201d\u00a0American Journal of Sociology\u00a078 (1973): 1360-80.\" id=\"return-footnote-978-4\" href=\"#footnote-978-4\" aria-label=\"Footnote 4\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[4]<\/sup><\/a><\/span><span class=\"s2\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>Version B<\/strong>: <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Granovetter begins by looking at balance theory. In brief, balance theory tells us that if an actor, A, is strongly tied to both B and C, it is extremely likely that B and C are, sooner or later, going to be tied to each other (1973:1363). Granovetter argues that because of this, bridge ties between cliques are always weak ties (1973:1364). Weak ties may not necessarily be bridges, but Granovetter argues that bridges will be weak. This is because if two actors share a strong tie, they will draw in their other strong relations and will eventually form a clique. The only way, therefore, that people in different cliques can be connected is through weak ties that do not have the strength to draw together all the \u201cfriends of friends.\u201d<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Guiffre. Communities and Networks, 98.\" id=\"return-footnote-978-5\" href=\"#footnote-978-5\" aria-label=\"Footnote 5\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[5]<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Version A has the exact same information as version B, but it is harder to read because it is less cohesive. The paragraph\u00a0in version B feels more cohesive because each sentence begins with old information and bridges to new information. Note that\u00a0&#8220;old&#8221; is a relative term: it might be something you&#8217;ve known for years, or it might only be as old as one sentence ago. <strong>You can convey a lot of new information to your readers if you keep presenting and linking\u00a0what&#8217;s new to what&#8217;s familiar, even if none of the material was &#8220;old news&#8221; to you five minutes earlier.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-982\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/453\/2016\/08\/11153000\/261480919_affdc1ca14_z-1-300x193.jpg\" alt=\"Drops of water on a spider's web\" width=\"300\" height=\"193\" \/>The first sentence in this example establishes the key idea of balance theory. The next sentence begins with balance theory and ends with social ties, which is the focus of the third sentence. The concept of weak ties connects the third and fourth sentences and the concept of cliques connects the fifth and sixth sentences. In Version A, in contrast, the first sentence focuses on balance theory, but then the second sentence makes a new point about social ties <i>before <\/i>telling the reader that the point comes from balance theory. The reader has to take in a lot of unfamiliar\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">information before learning how it fits in with familiar concepts. Version A is coherent, but the lack of cohesion makes it tedious to read.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox key-takeaways\">\n<h3>Key Takeaway<\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The point is this: if you or others perceive a passage you\u2019ve written to be awkward or choppy, even though the topic is consistent, try rewriting it to ensure that each sentence begins with a familiar term or concept. If your points don\u2019t naturally daisy-chain together like the examples given here, consider numbering them. For example, you may choose to write, \u201cProponents of the legislation point to four major benefits.\u201d Then you could discuss four loosely related ideas without leaving your reader wondering how they relate.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p1\">Coherence<\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">While <\/span><span class=\"s2\">cohesion is about the sense of flow, coherence is about the sense of the whole<\/span><\/strong><span class=\"s1\"><strong>.<\/strong> For example, here\u2019s a passage that is cohesive (from sentence to sentence) but lacks coherence: <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Your social networks and your location within them shape the kinds and amount of information that you have access to. Information is distinct from data, in that it makes some kind of generalization about a person, thing, or population. Defensible generalizations about society can be either probabilities (i.e., statistics) or patterns (often from qualitative analysis). Such probabilities and patterns can be temporal, spatial, or simultaneous. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-983\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/453\/2016\/08\/11153115\/228989707_4aedb3420c_z-1-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Metal chain receding into the distance\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/>Each sentence in the above passage starts with a familiar idea and progresses to a new one, but it lacks coherence\u2014a sense of being about one thing. In fact, it feels like an introduction to several main concepts of Communication crammed into one paragraph: this essay, if it were submitted in this form, would quickly overwhelm and exhaust its reader.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Note, though, that good writers often write passages like that when they\u2019re free-writing or using the drafting stage to cast a wide net for ideas. A writer weighing the power and limits of social network analysis may free-write something like that example and, from there, develop a more specific plan for summarizing key insights about social networks and then discussing them with reference to the core tenets of social science. As a draft, an incoherent paragraph often points to a productive line of reasoning\u2014you just have to continue thinking it through in order to identify a clear argumentative purpose for each paragraph. With its purpose defined, each paragraph becomes a lot easier to write. Coherent paragraphs aren\u2019t just about style; they are a sign of a focused, well developed analysis.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\">Concluding a Paragraph<\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Some guides advise you to end each paragraph with a specific concluding sentence\u2014i<\/span><span class=\"s2\">n a sense, to treat each paragraph as a kind of mini-essay\u2014but that\u2019s not a widely held convention. Most well written academic pieces don\u2019t adhere to that structure. The last sentence of the paragraph should certainly be in your own words (as in, not a quotation or paraphrase of somebody else&#8217;s ideas about your topic), but as long as the paragraph succeeds in carrying out the task that it has been assigned by its topic sentence, you don\u2019t need to worry about whether that last sentence has an air of conclusiveness. For example, consider these paragraphs about the <\/span><span class=\"s1\">cold fusion controversy of the 1980s <\/span><span class=\"s2\">that appeared in a best-selling textbook<\/span><span class=\"s2\">:<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch, The Golem: What You Should Know About Science 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Canto, 1998), 58.\" id=\"return-footnote-978-6\" href=\"#footnote-978-6\" aria-label=\"Footnote 6\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[6]<\/sup><\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s2\">The experiment seemed straightforward, and there were plenty of scientists willing to try it. Many did. It was wonderful to have a simple laboratory experiment on fusion to try after the decades of embarrassing attempts to control hot fusion. This effort required multi-billion dollar machines whose every success seemed to be\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">capped with an unanticipated failure. &#8216;Cold fusion&#8217; seemed to provide, as Martin Fleischmann said during the course of that famous Utah press conference, &#8216;another route&#8217;\u2014the route of little science. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In that example, the first and last sentences in the paragraph are somewhat symmetrical: the authors introduce the idea of accessible science, contrast it with big science, and bring it back to the phrase \u201clittle science.\u201d Here\u2019s an example from the same chapter of the same book that does not have any particular symmetry<\/span><span class=\"s1\">:<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Ibid., 74.\" id=\"return-footnote-978-7\" href=\"#footnote-978-7\" aria-label=\"Footnote 7\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[7]<\/sup><\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The struggle between proponents and critics in a scientific controversy is always a struggle for credibility. When scientists make claims which are literally &#8216;incredible,&#8217; as in the cold fusion case, they face an uphill struggle. The problem Pons and Fleischmann had to overcome was that they had credibility as electrochemists but not as nuclear physicists. And it was nuclear physics where their work was likely to have its main impact. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The last sentence of the paragraph doesn\u2019t mirror the first, but the paragraph is in great shape, coherently connecting its initial, general claim about credibility to the specific challenge to the credibility of Pons and Fleischmann. In general, don\u2019t trouble yourself with having the last sentence in every paragraph serve as a mini-conclusion if it feels forced. Instead, worry about developing each point sufficiently and making your logical sequence clear. Let your topic sentences do most of the work of keeping your essay coherent and giving it forward momentum.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox key-takeaways\">\n<h3>Key Takeaway<\/h3>\n<p>Rather than striving for mini-conclusions that might seem to pause your essay too heavily at the end of each paragraph if they are heavy-handed repetitions of the topic sentence, use the topic sentence of the <em>next<\/em> paragraph to bridge that gap of white space between paragraphs by regrouping where you are in your larger argument and clarifying how what you just finished saying relates to where your essay is heading in the coming paragraph. Topic sentences drive an essay forward; mini-conclusions sometimes stall it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Conclusion: Paragraphs as Punctuation <\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">To reiterate the initial point, it is useful to think of paragraphs as punctuation that organize your ideas in a readable way. Each paragraph should be an irreplaceable node within a coherent sequence of logic. <\/span><span class=\"s1\">In a successful, coherent college paper, the structure of each paragraph reflects its indispensable role within the overall piece. Make every bit count and have\u00a0each part situated within the whole.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-978\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Original<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Revision and Adaptation. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Lumen Learning. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>Revision and Adaptation. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Gillian Paku. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: SUNY Geneseo. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Cohesion and coherence. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Amy Guptill. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: The College at Brockport, SUNY. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/textbooks.opensuny.org\/writing-in-college-from-competence-to-excellence\/\">http:\/\/textbooks.opensuny.org\/writing-in-college-from-competence-to-excellence\/<\/a>. <strong>Project<\/strong>: Writing in College: From Competence to Excellence. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>Image of key. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Paree. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/acj85N\">https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/acj85N<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC: Attribution-NonCommercial<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>Image of water droplets. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Ben Collins. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/p7aaH\">https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/p7aaH<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>Image of chain. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Victor Nuno. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/meCEp\">https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/meCEp<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC: Attribution-NonCommercial<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section><hr class=\"before-footnotes clear\" \/><div class=\"footnotes\"><ol><li id=\"footnote-978-1\">Michael Harvey, <em>The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing<\/em>, Second Edition (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing, 2013), 70. <a href=\"#return-footnote-978-1\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 1\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-978-2\">Etiology is the cause of a disease\u2014what\u2019s actually happening in cells and tissues\u2014while epidemiology is the incidence of a disease in a population. <a href=\"#return-footnote-978-2\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 2\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-978-3\">Joseph M. Williams and Joseph Bizup. <em>Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace<\/em> 11th edition (New York: Longman, 2014), pp. 68, 71.\u2028 <a href=\"#return-footnote-978-3\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 3\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-978-4\">The quotation uses a version of an ASA-style in-text citation for Mark S. Granovetter, \u201cThe Strength of Weak Ties,\u201d\u00a0<em>American Journal of Sociology<\/em>\u00a078 (1973): 1360-80. <a href=\"#return-footnote-978-4\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 4\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-978-5\">Guiffre. <em>Communities and Networks<\/em>, 98.  <a href=\"#return-footnote-978-5\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 5\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-978-6\">Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch, <em>The Golem: What You Should Know About Science<\/em> 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Canto, 1998), 58. <a href=\"#return-footnote-978-6\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 6\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-978-7\">Ibid., 74. <a href=\"#return-footnote-978-7\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 7\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"author":19,"menu_order":3,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Cohesion and coherence\",\"author\":\"Amy Guptill\",\"organization\":\"The College at Brockport, SUNY\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/textbooks.opensuny.org\/writing-in-college-from-competence-to-excellence\/\",\"project\":\"Writing in College: From Competence to Excellence\",\"license\":\"cc-by-nc-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Revision and Adaptation\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"Lumen Learning\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-nc-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Image of key\",\"author\":\"Paree\",\"organization\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/acj85N\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-nc\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Image of water droplets\",\"author\":\"Ben Collins\",\"organization\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/p7aaH\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Image of chain\",\"author\":\"Victor Nuno\",\"organization\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/meCEp\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-nc\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Revision and Adaptation\",\"author\":\"Gillian Paku\",\"organization\":\"SUNY Geneseo\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-978","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":546,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1876,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/978\/revisions\/1876"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/546"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/978\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=978"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=978"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}