Paragraph Bridges
It is especially important to connect one paragraph to the next. This can be done by repeating key vocabulary or an important idea from one paragraph at the beginning of the next. It is also common to use a logic marker to show how the new paragraph relates logically to the previous one. In the following example, a student essay, the repetitions are highlighted in blue and green and the logic markers in yellow.
Half a Blanket
When I was a child I was fascinated by an old Laotian story that my grandmother used to tell me. In this story a man and wife and their young son live together with the man's old father. The man loves his father but his wife wants to get rid of the old man and eventually she turns her husband against his father. The man forces his father to leave the house and live in a small, cold cottage. The little boy continues to visit his grandfather and one day asks his father for a blanket for the old man, who is cold. The father tells the boy to go upstairs and get one. When the boy comes downstairs, he has a blanket that he has cut into two parts. When the father asks the boy why he has done this, the boy says, "One half is for you when you get old, Father."
The moral of this story is clear: We must respect and take care of our parents. The husband has forgotten what he owes his father. He has forgotten that he too will grow old. The boy reminds his father of this truth in a dramatic way. As a child I naturally felt very sorry for the old man, and I was always happy at the end of the story because I knew that justice would be done. I knew the old man would be invited back.
However, this lesson about respect and gratitude is not the only thing I liked in the story. Perhaps another reason I enjoyed this story so much is that the boy, the child, is the hero. The adults are shown to be mean, foolish, weak, or helpless. The woman is mean; her husband is foolish and weak; the old man is helpless to solve his own problem. He would still be living in his cottage if his clever and generous grandson had not helped him. I probably felt that I would have behaved as wisely as the boy if I had been in the same situation.
Surely I would have been a hero too, if I had been a boy. But now that I am an adult-- and a woman-- I am interested in another aspect of the story. Now I see that the story has another message: Men should never let themselves be dominated by women, If they do, they will regret it. The man may be weak and foolish but he is not evil; it is the woman who is evil, who is responsible for the old man's having to leave.
As you can see from this example, repetition and logic markers are used to make a transition from the old topic to the new one. This technique can be called a paragraph bridge or paragraph transition. The bridge may be a complete sentence an in the preceding example, or just a few words at the beginning of the new topic sentence, as in the following example from the fairy tale unit:
To many readers "Hansel and Gretel" seems terribly cruel and violent. What could be more cruel than parents who would abandon their children in the forest? When the children are captured by the wicked witch, the story introduces the idea of cannibalism, the possibility that the children will be eaten by the old witch. This idea is made especially dramatic and frightening by the woman's daily visit to Hansel's cage. The story's climax is equally cruel: Gretel burns the witch alive. Such violence and cruelty might create unhealthy fears in a young child.
In addition to the violence and cruelty, some people also object to the way fairy tales usually present family and sex roles. For example, in "Hansel and Gretel," as in many fairy tales, women are shown to be cruel and destructive.... Etc.
Again, the preceding topic-- violence and cruelty-- is repeated before the new topic-- family and sex roles-- is introduced. The logic marker "in addition to" tells the reader to expect a new idea.
Exercise 1.
Read the following essay about an American television program. What are the bridges in paragraphs 3 and 4? What information is repeated from earlier in the essay, and what logic markers are used?
Exercise 2.
What are the paragraph bridges in the following essay?
10/03/2010