Blog Post 2.1 – Paragraph Break
I chose Ruthan Robson’s creative nonfiction piece titled “Notes From a Difficult Case” to focus on for this blog post. The powerful nature of the subject matter and the methodical style of her writing (perhaps related to her role as a CUNY Law professor) was gripping. In my opinion, the most effective paragraph break is the second one in middle of page 232:
I weighed less than one hundred pounds and was so thin it hurt to sit on a chair. I had fevers that clawed at my bones. I was so weak I crawled down the hallway to the bathroom. I lost all my hair, even those sweet little hairs on my toes.
This paragraph break struck me as the most moving in what is a heart-rending story. Robson closes the previous paragraph with “Pain and suffering are incalculable.” Yet what she does in the paragraph that follows is vividly describe to the reader the brutal physical and mental toll. These four sentences paint a grim picture that the reader can’t escape from; one can’t skim over this passage to move on to the next part of the story. She strategically breaks the paragraph after listing all of the ill effects, allowing the reader to truly absorb the gravity of the situation.
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