Rules for Writers Chapter 4

Chapter 4 talks about building effective paragraphs. First, you want to focus on the main point. You'll need to state the main point in your topic sentence so readers of the paper know what they're reading about. Throughout the paper, its important to stick with the point of the paper instead of going on about somethings your topic has nothing to do with. To develop your main point and make it stick out, you need to write more then a few sentences; maybe give a little back round information. There many parts to a paper so it needs to be organized in paragraphs. Some things to maybe include are some examples to support, description, comparing/contrasting something to your topic, narration (something that might have to do with flashbacks), cause and effect, classification, and definition. Make sure that your ideas are linked to each other.
Sometimes its important to repeat some key words in different forms. The book uses the example (hike, hiker, hiking). You also need to be consistent. You don't want to change the point of the view from one to another or the verb tense from something other then your draft used. Using transitions helps readers move from sentence to sentence (using worlds like for example, next, thirdly, etc.). 
Once your paper is finished you should go through and adjust your paragraph length. Make sure they aren't too long or too short. Paragraphs that are too long can make the reader get lost and lose interest in the writing.

When writing my papers, once thing I never do it go back and adjust my paragraph lengths. I usually just keep them the way they are and add more if it needs to be a certain page length but otherwise I don't usually mess with it. I think after reading chapter 4, I will start going back and adjusting my paragraphs to make sure they are just right and where they need to be. I also have a hard time including examples and experiences in my work sometimes. I either forget, or just can't think of something to use and so even when it was required to include those, I would usually just leave them out which resulting in a lower grade. Chapter 4 has a lot of great information and I am happy to say that I will be using it a lot on our next essay