Unity & Simple Outlining
Unity and Simple Outlining
Every good paragraph has unity, which means that in each paragraph, only one main idea is discussed. If you start to discuss a new idea, start a new paragraph. Furthermore, every supporting sentence in the paragraph must be directly related to the main idea. Don’t include any information that does not directly support the topic sentence.
Uni- is a latin prefix meaning “one”. When we talk about paragraph unity, we mean that you should discuss only one main idea in each paragraph. For example if your paragraph is about the advantages of a college education, discuss only that, don’t discuss the disadvantages in getting a college education.
To make it even easier, discuss only one advantage in each paragraph, such as the ability to get a better job . However, sometimes it is possible to discuss two or even three aspects of the same idea in one paragraph if they are closely related to each other. For example, it is possible to discuss both “better job” and “better salary” in the same paragraph because tehy are closely related, but it is not good idea to discuss both “better job” and “better general knowledge about the world” in the same paragraph because they are not so closely related.
The second part of unity is that every supporting sentence must directly explain or prove the main idea, which is stated in the topic sentence. Sometimes students write supporting sentence that are “ off the topic “ for example if you are writing a paragraph about the high cost of college tuition, you could mention inflation as a factor. But if you write several sentences about inflation, you are getting” off the topic “ and your paragraph will not have unity.