Paragraph

- a compositional device

-is singled out graphically

Paragraph building is governed by:

•scientific prose = the logical principle

•newspaper style = psychological principle (to effect and impress the reader)

•official documents = conventional forms of documents (pacts, charters, business letters)

•belles-lettres and publicistic styles = the purpose of the writer

But words were no help.

Lincoln was dead.

Nothing more than that could be said.

He was gone.

He would never speak to the American people.

A great friend of man had suddenly vanished.

Nothing could be done about it.

Death is terribly final.

(C. Sandburg)

paragraph = a linguistic expression of a logical, pragmatic and aesthetic arrangement of thought

The thought had occurred to me that every passenger present was dressed for a gala performance of some sort. That such a performance would inevitably be –

Ours.

The cold feeling in the pit of my stomach rapidly spread to my arms, legs, and fingers.

(J. Higgins)

the content of the text is not a mechanical summing up of the signification of the sentences, paragraphs or SPUs

Introduction topicality

1/ Establishing a research territory

(rationale for the study/topicality)

- by showing that the general research area is important, central, interesting, problematic or relevant in some way;

-by reviewing previous research in the area

In recent years, researchers have become increasingly interested in …

Recently, there has been an increase of interest in …

Many recent studies have focused on …

Recently, a great deal of emphasis has been placed on …

Over the last decade, research on … has increasingly demonstrated that …

The relationship between … has been investigated/explored by many researchers.

The … has been extensively studied in recent years.

2/ Establishing a niche

(preparing a space for a new investigation)

-

-by indicating a gap/weakness in the previous research;

-by counter-claiming;

-by continuing a tradition

Although a considerable amount of research has been devoted to … few attempts have been made to investigate …

… However, few investigations have focused on

… However, little research has been undertaken to study the problem of …

Further investigations are needed to …

It remains unclear whether …

It would by thus of interest to study / learn / explore ...

3/ Occupying the niche

(outlining the purpose or nature of the present research)

- by identification of the object and subject of the research;

- by outlining the aim and objectives of the present research;

- by introduction of the thesis / hypothesis/ idea (the central, unifying idea, specific features of the subject that you will discuss)

- by defining theoretical and practical value of the research;

- by pointing out the methods of investigation and research strategy;

- by outlining the structure of the research paper

The major aim of the research is to provide …

The paper examines …

The present study analyses …

The purpose of the research is to give …

This paper focuses on …

This paper addresses the above question from the perspective of …

This study expands the model of … to …

This study sets out to identify …

This study explores …