Unity and Outlining

What is Unity in a Paragraph?

Unity is another important characteristic of a good paragraph. Unity means only one main idea is discussed in a paragraph. For instance, if your paragraph is about the disadvantages of electric cars, discuss only that. Don't discuss the advantages of electric cars.

Moreover, it's a good idea for beginner writers to discuss only one disadvantage in each paragraph. If you want to discuss another disadvantage, start a new paragraph.

Sometimes it is possible to discuss two or more aspects of the main idea in a single paragraph but in that case, the ideas must be closely related to each other. For instance, you can discuss low maintenance cost and gas economy in one paragraph because they are closely related. However, you must not discuss low maintenance and easy parking in the same paragraph since they are not closely related.

Another part of the unity is that each supporting sentence should prove or explain the main idea stated in the topic sentence. There should not be any irrelevant sentences. For instance, if you are writing a paragraph about the high cost of university tuition, you can mention inflation as one factor. However, if you write several sentences about inflation, then you are getting off the topic. In this case, your paragraph will not have unity.

The following paragraph breaks the rule of unity because it contains an irrelevant sentence that does not directly support the topic sentence. 

However, when we cross the irrelevant sentence then the paragraph follows the rule of unity.

Paragraph Outlining

An outline is a plan for a paragraph. This plan makes sure that you include all of your ideas that will fit.

Learning to write an effective outline will improve your writing for three reasons. First, making an outline will help you to logically organize your ideas. It will ensure that you will include all important and relevant points in your paragraph. Plus, an outline will force you to put your supporting sentences in a logical order. Second, learning an outline will help you to write fast. In the beginning, it may take some practice; however, once you learn an outline, you will surprise how fast you be able to write. When you prepare an outline it means that 75 percent of your work is done. The actual process of writing becomes easy. Since you already have a well-organized plan, therefore you don't have to worry about what you are going to say in the paragraph. Finally, learning an outline will improve your grammar. It will force you to concentrate on your grammar.

Forms of Outline

There are various forms of an outline. The form that we are going to discuss here is especially for those students who have never practiced an outline before.

The following is a simple form of an outline used for short paragraphs. 

The number of supporting points will vary from paragraph to paragraph. Study the simple outline below.

1. Parallel Form Rules

Parallel form rule state that equal parts of an outline must be written in parallel form. This means that ideas with the same number or letter must have the same grammatical structure. They all should be complete sentences or all prepositional phrases or all nouns or all adjectives etc.

In the following outline point, A is a sentence but points B and C are not sentences. Therefore, it is wrong since it breaks parallel form rules.

In the next outline, points A, B, and C are nouns. Therefore, this outline has a parallel form.

2. The Equivalent Rule: Outline with Detail

The equivalent rule state that ideas that have the same number of letter should have equal values. This means that main supporting points should have same kind of number or letter. Detail have different kind of number or letter. Study the sample outline below to see how these rules work.

Note: This outline rule state that if there is no 2, there can't be 1; if there is no B, there can't be A.

In the above outline, the detail under point C has no number since there is only one detail for it.