Paragraph: Discussion of Examples

These examples from real books written for real people quickly show how simplified the writing textbooks can be. If you happened to care enough about something to write a real essay or book about it, you probably would not be thinking "OK, got my topic sentence -- now let me think up supporting Point #1 -- I need at least two more supporting points, ugh -- now a conclusion". You would be thinking about how to say something in the best possible way to communicate what you meant. The thoughts would come from your mind and your efforts would be to put them down in a way that was pleasing and comprehensible to the reader.

One really doesn't imagine Mr Lewis or Mr Chesterton sitting down with an outline like the ones they tell students to use. Rather, they probably sat or walked or smoked and thought for a while, and then put pen to paper. (I think Chesterton actually dictated to a secretary who wrote down what he said, as a matter of fact).

Nevertheless, there is order in their paragraphs. Do you see the order? Chesterton makes the point that what might seem like hypocrisy is not always so, and that a charitable observer must see past a person's surface flaws as well as their surface appearance of virtue. He states something that seems a bit absurd or paradoxical at first appearance, but by the end of the paragraph he has started to bring the reader to see his first statement is more arguable than one might have thought at first glance. This is a favorite approach of his.

Lewis takes a slightly different approach, what you might call a "dialectic" approach. He does informally and conversationally something similar to what Thomas Aquinas does systematically. He states a position he will end up disagreeing with (the "objections" to his case), but he shows respect for the argument by treating it seriously. THEN during the rest of the essay or chapter he uses this opening problem to show his own position in clearer light.

In both these paragraphs there is a kind of movement. (and of course, both these paragraphs move us to the next paragraph in their chapters, but we aren't focusing on that aspect right now).

This movement is what advances a paragraph, and this is what writers of composition textbooks are trying to make students see in simplified terms. But it's not JUST a forward movement -- it's also a sort of consolidation won by repetition. This combination of movement with consolidation is what the textbooks are calling "unity" and "continuity".

If you look through Chesterton's paragraph you will see different forms of the word "hypocrisy" repeated in almost every sentence. Sometimes the word isn't used, but a synonym or definition. Another key word is "virtue" and there is a pattern of contrasting the idea of "virtue" with the idea of "vice".

In Mr Lewis's paragraph, there is also a movement along with a consolidation. Do you see the idea that is echoed several times through the sentences of the paragraph? It is to do with "man's conquest over Nature." While admitting that man has made great advances in knowledge of natural science, Lewis moves towards his point that "conquest" may not be an altogether meaningful word in the context.

In both these paragraphs, you can (hopefully) follow the author's train of thought. You may or may not agree with what each is saying, but in each case the author has left markers that take you from one sentence to the next. You've probably read enough poorly argued pieces that you know what it looks like when the writer DOESN'T do this.

So when reading the simplified advice in a typical handbook written for high schoolers, please keep in mind what Chesterton says about looking for hidden virtues. There is usually some sort of truth in the suggestions in theses books and there is benevolent intention in the advice of their authors. At least that is true of the books I choose for you to learn from. At the same time, with some exceptions, textbook-writers are not usually first-rate thinkers -- their virtue comes from their ability to hand on what has been handed on to them by greater thinkers. So it's important to respect their virtues while looking past them to the greater people they speak for.

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