Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

COHESION AND COHERENCE IN PARAGRAPHS

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Paragraphs consist of an indeterminate number of sentences, but often a

particular sentence may stand out as being more important than the others and

provide important clues as to textual coherence. For example, the first sentence of

a paragraph often indicates what the whole paragraph will be about, and is

sometimes called the topic sentence. Equally, the final sentence in a paragraph

may represent the logical conclusion or a summary of all the previous sentences.