In any essay or longer piece of writing, it is necessary, of course, to create coherence at a higher level than the paragraph. Consider this algebraic representation of a typical line of argument:

X is determined by a combination of A, B and C.

Imagine there is so much information about A, B and C that it cannot all be included in one paragraph. Faced with this situation students frequently make the mistake of beginning their paragraph with 'X is determined by a combination of A, B and C', then writing the rest of the paragraph about A. They then begin a new paragraph for B, and another for C. This is incoherent because the topic sentence indicates that the paragraph will develop the idea of A, B and C in combination determining X.

How would you solve this difficulty?

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