On the Papers: Five Varieties of Point Placement: The Construction of the English Paragraph, Part V

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In previous articles in this series on paragraph structure, I have claimed that if a paragraph is born to make a point, that point should most often be articulated explicitly, in a single sentence. The placement of that point sentence is crucial: Readers expect to find it either (1) as the last sentence of the paragraph’s issue (and that issue can be one, two, or three sentences) or (2) at the end of the discussion that flows from that issue. This article explores when each of these two point placements works best.