"The Logic and Rhetoric of Exposition"

Posted by Daly de Gagne
Sep 7, 2012 at 01:12 AM

Cassius, at university I wrangled with English literature profs about paragraph structuring. Mine were, having come from a newspaper background, too short. I continually agreed to attempt to make longer paragraphs, and my profs agreed that, all other things (especially clarity) being equal, my fetish for short paragraphs would not result in having marks docked. My profs did comment from time to time on the clarity of my writing, and I never failed to infuriate them by suggesting it could have something to do with my paragraphs. :)

I think your wife’s advice on good writing is spot on.

And congratulations indeed to both of you on your marriage anniversary.

Daly

Cassius wrote:
>This was the title of a required text in my advanced college freshman class in 1959. It
>was unintelligible.
> >So too have some posts in recent weeks seemed to me.
> >Shortly
>after I married, my wife (of 44 years this week) explained to me what she had learned as a
>journalist and editor:
> >Short sentences.
>Short paragraphs.
>Provide the main
>point of your posting in in the first two sentences.
> >P.S. We’ve been married 44
>years, but sometimes it feels like 45.