Honestly, I never viewed paragraphs deeper than just a paragraph until now. It kind of blew my mind when I was reading at it stated the 6-10 sentence rule was just to make students back their thoughts up. I am definitely that student that counts how many sentences I have in a paragraph. When I write, my thoughts just flow and I add a new paragraph when it feels necessary. Although, I feel like most of these tips given come naturally when you start writing. One thing I could take from this is managing transitions. So commonly I find myself scattered when thoughts are just flowing through my head. Paragraphs aren’t just paragraphs, they make the paper and that’s overlooked too commonly.
I’ve never heard a student describe outlines as “fun” because in reality, they suck. The worst part about outlines is just the time consuming part of setting them up. Outlines will help your paper out a WHOLE lot and keep you organized but I understand why people don’t use them as much as they should. This chapter gave some great tips on how to set it up in an orderly fashion and I could use these tips to reduce how much time I spend on an outline. Paragraphs and outlines are the backbone of the paper.. I know, I didn’t think so either.
It is great that the book reminds students that counting words, sentences or pages is not what writing is about. We may use such requirements as ways to help students reach detail and evidence, but ultimately writing is much more attuned to human needs rather than numbers (don't get upset, Math, I love what you do too!).
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