There are a number of functions paragraphs play in discourse studies. For example, it encourages a writer to give adequate focus to the various aspects of his or her message; and it facilitates the identification of one idea in an essay to another idea. Some classical second language writers (for example: Stern, 1976; Halliday & Hasan, 1976;…

The use of writing models with nonnative English speakers has received a certain amount of criticism--especially from teachers whose students copy models in their entirety or follow them too closely. The misuse of models has brought some teachers to the point where they believe that the best kind of pedagogy is to abandon writing models…

I propose that we think about what a paragraph is by considering its "function," what it does in a piece of writing, whether in a popular novel, a newspaper article, an e-mail, a business report, or a lofty piece of literary criticism. We might think about a paragraph as a "rhetorical dwelling."

Young adolescents should be able to write organized multi-paragraph compositions that develop a central idea and unfold in logical and sequential order, unified through the use of transitional words and phrases. In other words, the compositions should not just consist of a string of related sentences, but represent a dynamic text that has…

This handbook of English is divided into three major sections. In the first section, "The Expression and Communication of Thought," chapter one considers the task of writing, including different kinds of essays, style, and the use of standard English. The second chapter is devoted to the process of planning and writing and examines problems of…

Author extends Christensen's theories on paragraph development to formulate a sequence of development for longer compositions, and includes diagrams of sample sequences. (SP)

An analysis of paragraph development in letters to the editor and in "Saturday Review and "English Journal articles suggests irrelevance of development methods taught in school. (RD)

Some suggestions as to how to transfer training from narration and description to exposition, and how to extend Christensen principles to deal with the whole composition. (Author)

This article presents and illustrates a formal model of linguistic analysis in order to explain a phenomenon that is fundamental to translators in their practice: the construction of coherence. First, the role of paragraphs in the construction of coherence is explained with the application of the model to a newspaper editorial. It is shown, in…

Revised version of a paper presented to the Third International Congress of Applied Linguistics, Copenhagen, Denmark, August 1972. (DD)

THIS PAPER DEALS WITH SOME PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF RHETORICAL FORM AND STRUCTURE. THE SUGGESTION IS MADE THAT THE FIRST CONSIDERATION IS A DEFINITION OF THE ENTITY--THE EFFECTIVE STIMULUS--TO WHICH THE S (SUBJECT) RESPONDS. THIS MEANS A SPECIFICATION OF FUNCTIONAL CONTEXT, IN WHICH THE S VIEWS A GIVEN LANGUAGE PERFORMANCE. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL…

This volume is intended for practicing and prospective teachers at the elementary level through the graduate level who are involved in helping others learn how to write. The 35 articles collected here are organized according to the following section headings: "Introduction,""Motivating Student Writing,""A Reluctant Medium: The Sentence,""The…

Argues that generative rhetoric can lead technical writing students to produce more effective and better developed business reports. (TJ)

An evaluative review of Francis Christensen's generative rhetoric theory and its application to teaching freshman composition. (DS)

A crucial concept in Francis Christensen's principles of writing involves the "addition," which may be construed as any grammatical unit that is not a main clause. Obviously the effect of rhetorical writing derives mainly from the number of additions as well as from their placement and function within the single sentence. By means of…