Developing Paragraph Skills

Developing Paragraph Skills

Using Examples

        When we illustrate a point, we may use examples: figures, statistics, incidents, people, objects and experiences. Statistics from newspapers or reference books are often authoritative and convincing for our discussion. Historical events can also be useful in clarifying our points. However, for us beginning writers, the most effective examples are often those found in our personal experiences: what we have done, what we have seen, or what we have heard.

        Examples are useful evidence we an draw upon when we explain ideas, express feelings, justify attitudes, or support opinions. We use examples in our descriptions to convey our impressions. We select examples from related incidents to make a point in our stories. We rely on examples to explain and clarity our meaning. If we want to argue for or against a viewpoint, again, we need examples to convince our audience.

        In short, we use examples whenever we want to inform or persuade. The following passage is an example of using examples.

Nonverbal communication, or “body language,” is communication by facial expressions, head or eye movements, hand signals, and body postures. It can be just as important to understanding as are words. Misunderstanding—often amusing but sometimes serious—can arise between people from different cultures if they misinterpret nonverbal signals. Take, for examples, the differences in meaning of a gesture very common in the United States: a circle made with the thumb and index finger to an American, it means that everything is OK. To a Japanese, it means that you are talking about money. In France, it means that something is worthless, and in Greece, it is an obscene gesture. Therefore, an American could unkowingly offend a Greek by using a particular hand signal.

This passage uses several brief examples. Sometines writers also choose to explain a point with a very long example, i.e. an extended example. Let’s read the next passage and see how different it is from the passage we have just read.

When a child has acquired some language, we get some extraordinary glimpse of the fantastic world. When my friend, David, was two and a half years old, he was being prepared for a trip to Europe with his parents. He was a very bright child, talked well for his age, and seemed to take in everything his parents had to say with interest and enthusiasm. The whole family would fly to Europe (David knew what an airplane was), they would say many unusual things, they would go swimming, go on trains, and meet some of David’s friends there. The preparation story was carried on with just the right amount of emphasis for a couple of weeks before the trip. But after a while David’s parents noticed that he stopped asking questions about “Yurp” and even seemed depressed when he heard his parents talk about it. Then one day, David came out with the secret in an agonizing confession. “I can’t go to Yurp!” he said, and the tears came very fast. “I don’t know how to fly!”

Using Detailed Examples

        No matter whether we use brief or exended examples, we should include adequate details. While examples support a partiular point, details in the examples can sustain the readers’ attention and help them recall similar experiences of their own. Then, if readers can identify with the examples they may also identify with the point the examples illustrate.

        If the point we make is the soul of writing, then examples are the body, and details are the flesh and blood that make up the body.

        What can we do to bring out details in an example? Answer: look to narration and description for help, and find the most interesting and convincing details. Let’s take a look at the next two passages, and see how description and narration add interest and force to the discussion.

Passage 1

Professor Diedrich’s biology class on the Monday morning of midterm day is a prison scene. First, we convicts stand uncomfortably outside the classroom door in our dismal winter coats in brown and gray, whispering behind our hands or staring nervously down the empty hall. This is leisure time for the prisoners. Some men sqat on the floor and frown; others lean against the ugly green walls near the lab; others drag deeply on stubs of cigarettes. A black film of unshaved whiskers sits like coal dust on every face. Sullenly, my friend Tony says “You wanna butt?” he pushes a pack of cigarettes at me, but I shake my head no. Suddenly footsteps sound on the stairway around the bend. The Waredn, Professor Diedrich, marches firmly to the door and shouts, “Let’s go!” We all snap to attention and, still slouching, march single file into the lecture hall. “Take every other seat. Skip wo rows between you and the person in front of you. When the examination begins, there’s to be no talking or smoking.” I fall into my seat, thinking, “I wish I could break out of this place.” But I know I’m just paying for my crime: everyone warned me not to take biology in my freshman year. Suddenly two guards assistant examiners—burst through the doors with cartons of test booklets and questions sheets. Taking a handful of books and questions pages, the guards stamp between the rows, tossing the equipment solemenly. “Nobody writes,” barks the professor, “until eight o’clock sharp!” He scribbles in yellow chalk the time the examination begins, the time it ends, and the time it is now. At eight o’clock the bell howls like a siren; everyone jumps and writes a name across the first page of the examination blue book. Ocassionally, nervously, someone glances up at the beady-eyed guards who watch us without a smile. But I know my parole will begin just one hour from now. If I pass this awful exam, maybe I will be a two-time loser like most of my friends, just an “ex-con” who learned his lessons and never returned to the biology jail house.

Passage 2

Nonverbal communication or “body language,” is communication by facial expressions, head or eye movements, hand signals, and body postures. It can be just as important to understanding as are words. Misunderstandings—often amusing but sometimes serious—can arise between people from different cultures if they misinterpret nonverbal signals. Take, for example, the differences in meaning of a gesture very common in the United States: a cricle made with the thumb and index finger. To an American, it means that everything is OK. To a Japanese, it means that your are talking about money. In France, it means that something is worthless, and in Greek it is obscene gesture. Therefore, an American could unkowingly offend a Greek by using the particular hand signal. The follwing true incident illustrates how conflicting nonverbal signals can cause serious misunderstandings. While lecturing to his poetry class at Ain Shams University in Cairo, a british professor became so relaxed that he leaned back in his chair and revealed the bottom of his foot to the astonished class. Making such a gesture in Moslem society is the worst kind of insult. The next day the Cairo newspaper carried headlines about the student demonsstration that resulted, and they denounced British arrogance and demanded that the professor be sent home.