Page 156 - DENG101_Communication Skills-I

Unit 13: Basic Cohesive Paragraph Writing

diligently like so many emmets, sometimes two or three to a stone, we brought them all Notes
away and built our little wharf. The next morning the workmen were surprised at missing
the stones, which were found in our wharf. Inquiry was made after the removers; we were
discovered and complained of; several of us were corrected by our fathers; and, though I
pleaded the usefulness of the work, mine convinced me that nothing was useful which was
not honest.

Source: (178 words. This is a paragraph written by Benjamin Franklin in his Autobiography.)
Precis: In his Autobiography, Benjamin Franklin describes how, with his playmates, he
once constructed a wharf on the edge of the millpond, carrying stones at night from a
house going up near by. When discovered by his father, young Ben learned the folly of
being dishonest for any reason whatever. (49 words)

2. Whether building a boat from knock-down material or direct from lumber, sawing as you
go, there is one thing to keep constantly in mind. Building a boat is vastly different from
building a table or any other article for use on land. A joint that will get by for land use may
not do at all in the water. All seams and joints must be made as tight as possible, and then

finished and caulked with cotton to present an absolute smooth and weather-tight surface.
Nearly right will not do. It is better to take three times as long on the job and do it right,
than to have to go back over one’s work and even then have a leaky craft.
Precis: A man who builds a boat cannot use the same methods that building land equipment
requires; all the joints must be watertight.
3. The garret, built to be a dry depository for firewood and the like was dim and dark; for the

window of dormer shape was in truth a door in the roof, with a little crane over it for the
hoisting up of stores from the street: unglazed and closing up the middle in two pieces like
any other door of French construction. To exclude the cold, one half of this door was fast
closed, and the other half was opened but a very little way. Such a scanty portion of light

was admitted through this means that it was difficult for anyone, on first coming in, to see

anything; and long habit alone could have slowly formed in anyone the ability to do any
work requiring nicety in such obscurity. Yet work of that kind was being done in the garret;
for with his back toward the door and his face toward the window, where the keeper of the
wine shop stood looking at him, a white-haired man sat on a low bench, stooping forward
and very busy, making shoes. (Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities)
Comment: The paragraph begins with “The garret was dim and dark,” then follows the
cause for this condition, and next, the result of it. Finally the conjunction yet implies a
concessive relationship between the very end of the paragraph and all that precedes it.
Begins: the garret was dim and dark

Cause: a narrow aperture in the roof
Result: performance of nice work there seemed unlikely
Yet: a white-haired man sat there, busily making shoes
Precis: Although the attic appears so poorly lighted by a slender opening in the roof that
the performance of quality work there seems unlikely, a white-haired old man toils there,
busily making shoes.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 149