ace expository writing
on subjects wholly matter of fact, mathematical discussions, scientific
treatises largely, though not necessarily, and other writing of like
character. As unity is the quality of importance here, we may well
consider the units of discourse. Our first unit is that of the whole
composition, the second that of the paragraph, and the third that of the
sentence. Which of these is the prime unit, as the dollar is the prime
unit of our medium of exchange, may not be evident at once; but if we
examine the writing of clear thinkers carefully, without attempting to
settle the matter in any doctrinaire fashion, we shall find that the
paragraph, and not the sentence, is the more unified whole. I turn to
Cardinal Newman, and in the middle of a paragraph find the sentence,
"This should be carefully observed," a sentence meaningless when taken
from the context. As a part of the paragraph it has a function, but it
is certainly as a unit of detail and not as a prime unit. A writer like
Carlyle makes these lesser units more important, but they are still
subordinate to their use in the paragraph. In all our writing we shall
do much for the unity, simplicity, and coherence of our work by seeing
to it that our paragraphs are properly arranged and that each fulfills
this function of a prime unit in the composition.

=13. The Sense of Value.=--When, in addition to statement of mere
matters of fact, an author wishes to impress his readers with his own
sense of the importance and the value of what he has to say, or of some
special phase of his subject, he will employ the principles of the
second group spoken of in a preceding paragraph. They cannot be ignored,
indeed, in explanation of the simplest matters of fact, but a writer who
means to convince and persuade will make more use of them. His
personality will express itself in the selection of details and in the
emphasis he places upon one detail or another. Among the literary forms
which, besides being conceptual, are also concerned with persuasion, we
find the oration, the essay, a great deal of business correspondence,
and much of what we read in magazines and newspapers.

=14. Writing having Artistic Quality.=--When in addition to expressing
matters of fact or truth, appealing perhaps to experience, we wish to
arouse some sense of the beautiful and the artistic, we shall give our
writing some or all of the qualities of the third group. Evidently,
writing of this sor