Most students when asked to write a paragraph or two on any stipulated topic begin producing lengthy essays overflowing with details. The practice is like an epidemic in government schools, especially ...

In the most abstract sense, the function of an introductory paragraph is to move the reader from the world of daily life into the textual and analytical space of an essay. In a more concrete sense, an ...

As a graduate student, I once drew a rather bad cartoon of an old schoolmarm (complete with Gary Larson-style beehive) standing in front of a class saying, “And when you finish your five-paragraph ...