BUILD PARAGRAPH PATTERNS

from The Edge of the Sea by Rachel Carson

The edge of the sea is a strange and beautiful place. All through the long history of Earth it has been an area of unrest where waves have broken heavily against the land, where the tides have pressed forward over the continents, receded, and then returned. For no two successive days is the shore line precisely the same. Not only do the tides advance and retreat in their eternal rhythms, but the level of the sea itself is never at rest. It rises or falls as the glaciers melt or grow, as the floor of the deep ocean basins shifts under its increasing load of sediments, or as the earth's crust along the continental margins warps up or down in adjustment to strain and tension. Today a little more land may belong to the sea, tomorrow a little less. Always the edge of the sea remains an elusive and indefinable boundary.

Understand the difference between coordinate and subordinate sentence relationships. A sentence is subordinate to another sentence when it further specifies a more general one, just as the word young is subordinate to the word man in the phrase young man. The third sentence of the unit selection paragraph specifies the more general idea of "unrest" of the second sentence. Coordinate sentences are parallel. Coordinate sentences are on the same level of generality within the paragraph. The first three sentences in the unit selection illustrate these two different kinds of sentence relationships. The first sentence states one broad feature of the sea. The second sentence specifies that idea by focusing on one part; it is subordinate to the first sentence. The third sentence also specifies the idea in the first sentence and is subordinate. The sentences which discuss the two parts of the tide are coordinate to each other.

Use coordinate sequences to develop paragraphs when the purpose is to enumerate reasons, examples, results, or any series of items that serve as equal points supporting the an idea. In observing a landscape from a high point, you may take in a large scene and them move from object to object within the scene. Similarly, you may make an initial observation and then develop the paragraph listing a series of parallel (coordinate) items that support the initial observation. You can graph this kind of paragraph development in the following way:

Level 1 Sentence______________________

Level 2 Sentence_______________
Level 2 Sentence________________

Use subordinate sequences to develop paragraphs when the purpose is to describe in depth, to specify, or to develop a point in detail. You may develop a paragraph in successive subordinate sentences to make up a picture, an idea, or an experience more specific by narrowing the focus. You can graph this kind of development as follows:

Level 1 Sentence________________

Level 2 Sentence_______________

Level 3 Sentence_____________

Use mixed sequences to develop paragraphs when your purpose is both to enumerate and to describe in depth. Most paragraphs do not seem to be developed exclusively with a coordinate or a subordinate sequence of sentences. Most paragraphs include both coordinate and subordinate sequences. They may be mixed in two ways: (1)a primarily coordinate sequence with one or more subordinates or (2) a primarily subordinate sequence with coordinate sentences

ASSIGNMENT

Select one of the following proverbs and use it as the level 1 sentence in a 4-sentence paragraph: (1)Without error there can be no such thing as truth. (2) He who knows he is a fool is not a big fool. (3) If you don't wonder at the wonderful it ceases to be a wonder. (4)Silence is of the gods; only monkeys chatter. (5) He who tells me of my faults is my teacher; he who tells me of my virtues does me harm.

Use the following development scheme:

Level 1 Sentence________________

Level 2 Sentence_______________

Level 3 Sentence_____________