<!-- bryant-content-generator:start --> # Self-contained paragraph architecture is partly a... > Self-contained paragraph architecture is partly a literary discipline and partly a form of courtesy. A reader should not have to reconstruct the missing subject of a paragraph from material several screens above, especially in an environment of interruptions, small displays, excerpted text, and divided attention. The opening sentence should tell the reader what has begun. The middle should reward the attention requested. The closing sentence should return that attention with an intelligible consequence. {{Good structure is compassion expressed as reduced cognitive burden.}} **Source:** [[projects/The Argument in Miniature - How I Write Quotations, Paragraphs, and Reusable Prose|The Argument in Miniature: How I Write Quotations, Paragraphs, and Reusable Prose]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “Self-contained paragraph architecture is partly a literary discipline and partly a form of courtesy. A reader should not have to reconstruct the missing subject of a paragraph from material several screens above, especially in an environment of interruptions, small displays, excerpted text, and divided attention. The opening sentence should tell the reader what has begun. The middle should reward the attention requested. The closing sentence should return that attention with an intelligible consequence. Good structure is compassion expressed as reduced cognitive burden.” — Bryant McGill https://bryantmcgill.com/passages/passages-self-contained-paragraph-reduced-cognitive-burden ``` <!-- bryant-content-generator:end -->