Argues that the paragraph represents a semantic unit, not just a grammatical convention. Presents original research to establish the types and frequencies of certain paragraph formats found in expository material. Discusses the most appropriate time for teaching students the ideational relationships within paragraphs. (FL)

Helping students understand coherence in terms of the lexical ties and semantic relations possible between clauses and sentences formalizes an area of writing instruction that has been somewhat vague before and makes the process of creating a coherent paragraph less mysterious. Many students do not have the intuitive knowledge base for absorbing…

Students who are taught to understand and apply Korzybski's uses of semantics to their writing will learn to write more concretely. As students locate words and descriptions vertically on Korzybski's scale of abstraction levels, they will become able to perceive how meanings change when descriptions become either more general or specific, to…

This text is designed for students of English as a second language for intermediate and advanced levels of proficiency. The text is based on an approach to writing which is semantic and cognitive. Providing for active transfer of each student's knowledge of vocabulary and grammar, it bridges the gap between controlled writing and free writing.…