WRITING YOUR DOCUMENT
69
“Darling,” replied Charles, in the soothing tone he reserved for such outbursts, “you did say you wanted to experience the real East.” “I suppose you’re telling me, it’s all my fault.” A large insect flew onto the veranda and began fluttering around her head. “Get away!” Henrietta shrieked, flapping at it wildly. Charles stood up and dispatched the intruder with a rolled-up copy of the Straits Times. This was not quite what he had imagined either, but he was certainly not in a mood to admit it. Peace returned briefly to the jungle clearing. “If you’d wanted the Singapore Hilton . . .” Charles began again. “I know what I said,” she snapped. “You just didn’t get what I meant!” Somewhere not too far away, an elephant trumpeted loudly.
Note that there is a new paragraph (of just one sentence) to describe the temporary silence in the setting. That sentence does not form part of Charles’s reflections. For further discussion of direct speech, see REPORTING SPEECH (page 167). For further discussion of the use of periods in direct speech, see PERIOD (page 354). For further discussion of the use of quotation marks and paragraphs, see QUOTATION MARKS (page 356).
Division into Paragraphs This discussion of paragraphs would not be complete without a brief demonstration of how a piece of undifferentiated text could be broken down. Imagine, if you like, that this writer, not wishing to be slowed while drafting, just presses ahead and produces the following: At the Mexico City Olympics in 1968, high-jumping set off in an entirely new direction that was to take it to unprecedented heights. Richard D. (Dick) Fosbury took gold for the United States that year with an entirely new jumping style of his own devising that came to be known as the Fosbury flop. Officials and spectators watched in amazement and dismay as Fosbury launched himself into the air, arched his back, went over the bar belly up, not belly down as in traditional jumping styles, and landed, apparently, on his head in the pit. They were amazed at his courage, at his success, and at the fact that he did not break his neck. They were dismayed by the thought of the spinal injuries and concussion that might result as, spurred on by Fosbury’s success, young athletes tried to emulate his method. Since the early days when the high jump developed as a sport out of a desire by young men to show their daring and athleticism by leaping gates and hedges, it had been taken for granted that part of the skill lay in coming down safely on the other side. In most older belly-down styles like the straddle, the jumper’s leading foot was the first part of the body that went over the bar and the first that came down on the other side to break the fall. Fosbury changed all that. His head went over the bar first and the rest of him followed, though he always insisted that it was his shoulders he landed on, not his head or neck. Despite Fosbury’s Olympic success and the obvious