<!-- bryant-content-generator:start --> # A standalone paragraph is not a disconnected... > A standalone paragraph is not a disconnected paragraph. Its opening must establish enough local ground to survive removal, but the paragraph must still advance the larger argument and preserve continuity with its neighbors. The skill lies in creating conceptual transitions rather than grammatical dependencies: the next paragraph can inherit a question, pressure, or consequence without opening on an orphaned pronoun or an unexplained phrase such as “the same law.” {{Continuity is strongest when ideas depend upon one another without sentences becoming helpless without one another.}} **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 ``` “A standalone paragraph is not a disconnected paragraph. Its opening must establish enough local ground to survive removal, but the paragraph must still advance the larger argument and preserve continuity with its neighbors. The skill lies in creating conceptual transitions rather than grammatical dependencies: the next paragraph can inherit a question, pressure, or consequence without opening on an orphaned pronoun or an unexplained phrase such as “the same law.” Continuity is strongest when ideas depend upon one another without sentences becoming helpless without one another.” — Bryant McGill https://bryantmcgill.com/passages/passages-standalone-paragraph-disconnected-helpless-without-another ``` <!-- bryant-content-generator:end -->