Paragraphs: Enhance Your Manuscript with Non-Verbal Cues

Paragraphs are essential visual features of a research article. Here I use an Introduction section to show how paragraphs can provide visual cues to help readers process your article.

According to The Elements of Style (Strunk & White, 2000, pg. 16):

The object of treating each topic in a paragraph is (…) to aid the (readers). The beginning of each paragraph is a signal to (them) that a new step in the development of the subject has been reached.

I would go two steps further:

1. Besides helping readers, paragraphs also help authors organize their own thoughts.
2. Besides introductory sentences, paragraphs also provide the landscape on which authors can leave specific trails for the readers to follow.

Consider this Introduction section (Chomczynski & Sacchi, 1987):

①Guanidinium thiocyanate and chloride are among the most effective protein denaturants (1,2). ②As a strong inhibitor of ribonucleases, guanidinium chloride was first introduced as a deproteinization agent for isolation of RNA by Cox (3). ③Since then guanidinium extraction has become the method of choice for RNA purification, replacing phenol extraction.(↲) ④Guanidinium methods have been used successfully by Chirgwin et al. (4) to isolate undegraded RNA from ribonuclease-rich tissues like pancreas. ⑤Chirgwin’s protocol for ultracentrifugation of a guanidinium thiocyanate lysate through CsCl cushion has become one of the most frequently used isolation of undegraded RNA.(↲) ⑥In the present report, a new rapid procedure combining guanidinium thiocyanate and phenol-chloroform extraction is described. ⑦A combination of guanidinium and hot phenol for RNA isolation has been reported by Fermisco et al. (5). ⑧The method we describe differs in that it converts the guanidinium-hot phenol method to a single step extraction which allows isolation of RNA in 4 h and ⑨provides both high yield and purity of undegraded RNA preparations. ⑩By eliminating the ultracentrifugation step the guanidinium-CsCl method this procedure allows the simultaneous processing of a large number of samples. ⑪In addition, this new procedure permits recovery of total RNA from small quantities of tissues or cells making it suitable for gene expression studies for which only a limited quantity of biological material is available.

Written as an eleven-sentence text block, this single-paragraph Introduction fails to help readers in the following ways:

• Sentence ① does not introduce the theme/function of the paragraph to readers; it’s just a definition of guanidinium thiocyanate and chloride.
• The two themes (background and author contributions) are not clearly separated, making individual problems (top half) difficult to connect with corresponding solutions (bottom half).

Also, keeping two themes in a single paragraph has forced the authors to use complex grammatical features and sentence constructions, such as:

• unnatural synonyms to manage word repetitions (e.g., “extraction” and “isolation”),
• past tense and the listing of author names to convey the historical background of the field,
• non-English constructions such as “allows + noun” or “permit + noun” to express achievement, or
• the passive voice to avoid the use of pronouns, etc.

Rewriting Using Two Paragraphs

I choose the second natural break (↲) of the original Introduction as the separation point between the background theme and the author contribution theme.

I then use the active voice and the present tense to:

• combine ideas ①②③ to produce the introductory sentence of the first paragraph,
• rewrite idea ⑥ to produce the introductory sentence of the second paragraph, and
• combine and rewrite the rest of the sentences in each paragraph accordingly.

Doing so, I get:

The new Introduction section does a better job at helping the reader, with the first sentence of each paragraph signaling theme change.

Beyond the First Sentence: Leaving Breadcrumb Trails to Guide Readers

Parallel sentence structures across paragraphs. Sentences of corresponding positions between paragraphs relate to each other to guide readers. In the rewrite:

• sentence ①②③ and sentence ⑥ both refer to the guanidinium and the phenol extraction methods,
• sentence ④⑤ and sentence ⑦⑧⑨ talk about past and current breakthroughs, respectively, and
• sentences ⑩ state the problem and solution of ultracentrifugation.
• sentence ⑪ stands out by itself: the statement is (and was) intended to sound like a bonus finding.

This kind of symmetry helps readers navigate between paragraphs.

Strategic word repetitions. Repetition is good if clarity can be enhanced without sounding repetitive. In the rewrite, the two paragraphs provide two themes that makes the repeated and exclusive use of “extraction” (while avoiding “isolation”) less noticeable—enhancing clarity.

Further, the clear theme/paragraph delineation enables the coding of specific words by strategic repetition. In the rewrite, the old way of doing things is coded by the exclusive use in the first paragraph of the word “method“. In contrast, the new way of doing things is coded by the use of the words “procedure” and “approach” that only appear in the second paragraph. This coding in the Introduction is effective throughout the entire manuscript.

Works Consulted

Strunk, W., & White, E. B. (Elwyn B. (2000). The elements of style. New York : Longman.

Chomczynski P., Sacchi N. Single-Step Method of RNA Isolation by Acid Guanidinium Thiocyanate-Phenol-Chloroform Extraction. Anal. Biochem. 162 (1987), 156-9.