An investigation into the concept of paragraph awareness and its implications for the teaching of composition

Abstract

The purposes of this study were as follows: to provide an exhaustive review of the literature dealing with the notion of paragraph; to determine whether selected grade nine students were sufficiently cognizant of the concept of paragraph to be able to differentiate between units of print which were paragraphs and units of print which were not paragraphs; and to provide suggestions dealing with curriculum and instruction of the paragraph. -- The subjects for this study were 331 grade nine students from four high schools in Newfoundland. The schools are located in four distinct geographical regions of the province. -- A ten-item test was administered to the subjects. The test was comprised of five items that were paragraphs and five items that were non-paragraphs. -- The results suggested that, in general, the subjects could not differentiate between paragraph and non-paragraph items. This inability was interpreted as reflecting a lack of knowledge on the part of the subjects as to what a paragraph is. -- Recommendations for teacher training programs, curriculum and instruction modifications, and further research were proposed.