Hi
Here's another post to help you improve your business writing skills.
A well-written paragraph has UNITY: it should have one central idea. All sentences -- the topic sentence, supporting sentences, detail sentences, and (sometimes) the concluding sentence -- are telling the reader about one main topic. If your paragraph contains a sentence or some sentences that are not related to the main topic, then it is considered to lack unity or contain information not relevant to the central idea.
When writing paragraphs it is easy to lose your way so that you no longer express your ideas clearly.
Very often people waste some of their best thoughts and words because:
• they bury them in a tangle of distracting information;
• they present them without the supporting information that readers need;
• they repeat the same information again and again, without introducing anything new.
To make the most of your ideas and the information you have, give your readers a small piece at a time, so you give them the chance to understand each part. Give them the details, examples, definitions and supporting information they need to understand each idea.
Without the topic sentence a paragraph will lack unity. The topic sentence introduces or summarizes the main idea and acts as an initiator for the subsequent sentences. For example look at the topic sentence from this posting’s first paragraph.
A well-written paragraph has UNITY: it should have one central idea. – A general sentence that sets the scene for adding supporting sentences and a conclusion.
Grammatically, the topic sentence can be either stated or implied. Some paragraphs have no written topic sentence but still have a main idea, which is deduced from the supporting sentences.
Here is an example of a paragraph with an implied main idea:
Area codes are numerical codes assigned by the telephone company to tell from which part of the country you are calling. Area codes were first introduced in 1947 and since this time they have been increasing at a staggering rate.
One possible topic sentence for this paragraph could be "There are various interesting facts about area codes."
The topic sentence may come anywhere in the paragraph. Your writing will be easier to read, however, if you make the topic sentence explicit and put it at the beginning of a paragraph.
At the Beginning
This is the position where topic sentence occurs most frequently.
A majority of the economists consulted think that business activity will drop during the first quarter of next year. Of the 185 economists interviewed, 13 percent looked for contin¬ued increases in business activities; and 28 percent anticipated little or no change from the present high level. The remaining 59 percent looked for recession. Of this group, nearly all (87 percent) believed the down curve would occur during the first quarter of the year.
At the End
Another common paragraph arrangement places the topic sentence at the end, usually as a conclusion. Very often these paragraphs begin with an introductory sentence that may appear to be a topic sentence. But the final sentence covers the real substance of the paragraph, as illustrated in the following example:
The significant role of inventories in the economic picture should not be overlooked. At present, inventories represent 3.8 months supply. Their dollar value is the highest in histo¬ry. If considered in relation to increased sales, however, they are not excessive. In fact, they are well within the range generally believed to be safe. Thus, inventories are not likely to cause a downward swing in the economy.
