{"id":48346,"date":"2009-03-20T00:15:21","date_gmt":"2009-03-20T07:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.katefox.biz\/newhall\/?p=24"},"modified":"2026-06-12T11:38:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T11:38:05","slug":"ending-paragraphs-and-sentences-with-a-bang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/ending-paragraphs-and-sentences-with-a-bang\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing Room: Ending Paragraphs and Sentences with a Bang"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"a<\/a>
Paragraph endings — a great place to add liveliness and clarity to your writing. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the handiest writing tips I know \u2013 and an easy one to implement \u2013 is this: Think about how your paragraph ends. The most powerful place in a paragraph is the last sentence. More precisely, the most powerful place in a paragraph is the last phrase or words of that last sentence.<\/p>\n

Most writers know that the first sentence in a paragraph needs to be strong. It gives structure to the sentences that follow; it\u2019s there to let the reader know what\u2019s coming up. That first sentence also needs to be interesting enough to draw the reader into the ideas that follow. Most of us know all this. Our high school English teachers drummed it into us. But many writers I meet are unaware of how much they can improve their writing just by paying a little attention to how they end their paragraphs.<\/p>\n

Compare, for example, the following two paragraphs. One of them is from an essay in Frederick Buechner\u2019s\u00a0<\/a> latest book, The Yellow Leaves: A Miscellany<\/em>. And one of them is not.<\/p>\n

\u201cIncoronata must have spent hours working herself up to it because I\u2019d barely lifted the receiver when she dropped her bombshell. She said a good deal. She said she was quitting. She said she\u2019d had all she could take. And then she said there was nothing more to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIncoronata must have spent hours working herself up to it because I\u2019d barely lifted the receiver when she dropped her bombshell. She said she was quitting. She said she\u2019d had all she could take. She said there was nothing more to say. And then she said a good deal more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Frederick
Frederick Buechner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Which paragraph leaves the stronger impression? What thought do you take away from each paragraph? Which paragraph leaves you feeling that you are in the hands of an exciting writer?<\/p>\n

The first graph trails off at the end. There\u2019s nothing wrong with its last sentence grammatically. But an opportunity is lost \u2013 an opportunity to leave the reader with the powerful image of an Incoronata so furious that she can\u2019t stop talking.<\/p>\n

The same holds true of a sentence. One of the following sentences is from the same Buechner essay, \u201cOur Last Drive Together.\u201d The other one is not. Which one has more zip?<\/p>\n

\u201cI pulled [my mother\u2019s] sun visor down, and she said any fool could see that would do no damn good since she was too low in her seat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI pulled [my mother\u2019s] sun visor down, and she said any fool could see she was too low in her seat for that to be any damn good either.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second sentence is more powerful, partly because it leaves the reader with the strongest image in the sentence \u2013 a cussing old lady. But also because in this version the sentence ends rhythmically. Not with a whimper but a bang.<\/p>\n

Why is it that nobody can forget the last line of \u201cThe Hollow Men<\/a>?\u201d Because T.S. Eliot knew how to end a poem \u2013 and a sentence.<\/p>\n

The Yellow Leaves: A Miscellany<\/em>
\nFrederick Buechner
\nWestminster John Knox, 123 pages, $17.95<\/p>\n

Wondering whether it’s “different from” or “different than”? I finally figured it out — with some help from the books on my shelf. Read all about it at “Different From, Different Than.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/p>\n

The most powerful place in a paragraph is its last sentence. More precisely, the most powerful place in a paragraph is the last few words of that sentence. Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,52],"tags":[65,66,67,68,69],"class_list":["post-48346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-writing-reading","category-the-writing-room","tag-frederick-buechner","tag-grammar-geeks","tag-paragraphs","tag-sentences","tag-writing-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48346"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52896,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48346\/revisions\/52896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}