首先，一個段落必須有一個中心即主題思想，該中心由主題句特別是其中的題旨來表達。整個段落必須緊扣這個主題(stick
or hold to the topic)，這就是段落的統一性(unity)。其次，一個段落必須有若干推展句，使主題得到充分展開，進而給讀者一個完整的感覺，這就是完整性(completeness
or adequateness)。再者，一個段落不是雜亂無章的，而是有機的組合，句子的排列順序必須合乎邏輯，從一個句子到另一個句子的過渡必須流暢(smooth)，這就是連貫性(coherence)。下面我們就對這三個標準分別加以說明。
1.
統一性
一個段落內的各個句子必須從屬於一個中心，任何游離於中心思想之外的句子都是不可取的。請看下例：
Joe and
I decided to take the long trip we'd always
wanted across the country. We were like
young kids buying our camper and stocking
it with all the necessities of life. Bella
bakes the best rhubarb pie. We started out
in early spring from Minneapolis and headed
west across the northern part of the country.
We both enjoyed those people we met at the
trailer park. Joe received a watch at his
retirement dinner. To our surprise, we found
that we liked the warm southern regions
very much, and so we decided to stay here
in New Mexico.
本段的主題句是段首句，controlling
idea(中心思想)是take the long trip across the
country。文中出現兩個irrelevant sentences，一個是Bella
bakes the best rhubarb pie，這一段是講的是Joe and
I，中間出現一個Bella是不合適的。還有，Joe received a watch
at his retirement dinner這一句更是與主題句不相關。
My name is Roseanna, and I like to keep
physically fit. I used to weigh two hundred
pounds, but I joined the YMCA for an exercise
class and diet program. In one year I lost
eighty pounds. I feel much better and never
want to have that much weight on my five-feet
frame again. I bought two new suitcases
last week. Everyday I practice jogging three
miles, swimming fifteen laps, lifting twenty-pound
weights and playing tennis for one hour.
My mother was a premature baby.
本段的controlling
idea是like to deep physically fit，但段中有兩個irrelevant
sentences，一個是I bought two new suitcases
last week，另一個是My mother was a premature
baby。 從上面兩個例子可以看出，native speakers同樣會造出來irrelevant
sentences。卷面上如果這種句子多了，造成偏題或離題，那問題就更嚴重了。
2.
完整性
正如我們前面說得那樣，一個段落的主題思想靠推展句來實現，如果只有主題句而沒有推展句來進一步交待和充實，就不能構成一個完整的段落。同樣，雖然有推展句，但主題思想沒有得到相對圓滿的交待，給讀者一種意猶未盡的感覺。這樣的段落也不能完成其交際功能。例如：
Physical work can be a useful form of therapy
for a mind in turmoil. Work concentrates
your thoughts on a concrete task. Besides,
it is more useful to work--you produce something
rather than more anxiety or depression.
本段的主題句是段首句。本段的兩個推展句均不能回答主題句中提出的問題。什麼是“a
mind in turmoil”(心不平靜)Physical work又如何能改變這種情況？為什麼它能起therapy的作用？讀者得不到明確的答案。
由於一般考試的作文部分只要求寫一篇150--200個字的三段式短文，每一段只有大約50個字左右，因此，要達到完整就必須盡可能地簡明。例如：
It is not always true
that a good picture is worth a thousand
words. Often writing is much clearer than
a picture. It is sometimes difficult to
figure out what a picture means, but a careful
writer can almost always explain it.
段首句所表達的主題思想是一種看法，必須有具體事例加以驗證。上述兩個推展句只是在文字上對主題作些解釋，整個段落內容空洞，簡而不明。如果用一兩個具體的例子的話，就可以把主題解釋清楚了。比如下段：
It is not always true
that a picture is worth a thousand words.
Sometimes, pictures are pretty useless things.
If you can't swim and fall in the river
and start gulping water, will you be better
off to hold up a picture of yourself drowning,
or start screaming, "Help"?
3.
連貫性(coherence)
連貫性包括意連和形連兩個方面，前者指的是內在的邏輯性，後者指的是使用轉換詞語。當然這兩者常常是不可分割的。只有形連而沒有意連，句子之間就沒有內在的有機的聯繫；反之，只有意連而沒有形連，有時行文就不夠流暢。
- 意連
段落中句子的排列應遵循一定的次序，不能想到什麼就寫什麼。如果在下筆之前沒有構思，邊寫邊想，寫寫停停，那就寫不出一氣呵成的好文章來。下面介紹幾種常見的排列方式。
A.
按時間先後排列(chronological arrangement)
We had a number of
close calls that day. When we rose,
it was obviously late and we had to
hurry so as not to miss breakfast; we
knew the dining room staff was strict
about closing at nine o'clock. Then,
when we had been driving in the desert
for nearly two hours ----- it must have
been close to noon ---- the heat nearly
hid us in; the radiator boiled over
and we had to use most of our drinking
water to cool it down. By the time we
reached the mountain, it was four o'clock
and we were exhausted. Here, judgement
ran out of us and we started the tough
climb to the summit, not realizing that
darkness came suddenly in the desert.
Sure enough, by six we were struggling
and Andrew very nearly went down a steep
cliff, dragging Mohammed and me along
with him. By nine, when the wind howled
across the flat ledge of the summit,
we knew as we shivered together for
warmth that it had not been our lucky
day.
本段從"rose"(起床)寫起，然後是吃早餐("not
to miss breakfast", "closing
at nine o'clock")，然後是"close
to noon"，一直寫到這一天結束("By nine--")。
B. 按位置遠近排列(spatial
arrangement)。
例如：From a distance,
it looked like a skinny tube, but as
we got closer, we could see it flesh
out before our eyes. It was tubular,
all right, but fatter than we could
see from far away. Furthermore, we were
also astonished to notice that the building
was really in two parts: a pagoda sitting
on top of a tubular one-story structure.
Standing ten feet away, we could marvel
at how much of the pagoda was made up
of glass windows. Almost everything
under the wonderful Chinese roof was
made of glass, unlike the tube that
it was sitting on, which only had four.
Inside, the tube was gloomy, because
of the lack of light. Then a steep,
narrow staircase took us up inside the
pagoda and the light changed dramatically.
All those windows let in a flood of
sunshine and we could see out for miles
across the flat land.
本段的寫法是由遠及近，從遠處("from
a distance")寫起，然後"get closer"，再到("
ten feet away")，最後是"inside
the pagoda"……當然，按位置遠近來寫不等於都是由遠及近。根據需要，也可以由近及遠，由表及裏等等。
C.
按邏輯關係排列(logical arrangement)
a.按重要性順序排列(arrangement
insgroupsof importance)
If you work as a soda
jerker, you will, of course, not need
much skill in expressing yourself to be
effective. If you work on a machine, your
ability to express yourself will be of
little importance. But as soon as you
move one step up from the bottom, your
effectiveness depends on your ability
to reach others through the spoken or
the written word. And the further away
your job is from manual work, the larger
the organization of which you are an employee,
the more important it will be that you
know how to convey your thoughts in writing
or speaking. In the very large business
organization, whether it is the government,
the large corporation, or the Army, this
ability to express oneself is perhaps
the most important of all the skills a
man can possess.
這一段談的是表達能力，它的重要性與職業，身份有關，從"not
need much skill"或"of little
importance"到"more important"，最後是"most
important"。
b.由一般到特殊排列(general-to-specific
arrangement)
If a reader is lost,
it is generally because the writer has
not been careful enough to keep him on
the path. This carelessness can take any
number of forms. Perhaps a sentence is
so excessively cluttered that the reader,
hacking his way through the verbiage,
simply doesn't know what it means. Perhaps
a sentence has been so shoddily constructed
that the reader could read it in any of
several ways. Perhaps the writer has switched
tenses, or has switched pronouns in mid-sentence,
so the reader loses track of when the
action took place or who is talking. Perhaps
sentence B is not logical sequel to sentence
A ---- the writer, in whose head the connection
is clear, has not bothered to provide
the missing link. Perhaps the writer has
used an important word incorrectly by
not taking the trouble to look it up.
He may think that "sanguine"
and "sanguinary" mean the same
thing, but the difference is a bloody
big one. The reader can only infer what
the writer is trying to imply.
這一段談的是a writer's carelessness，先給出一個general
statement作為主題句，然後通過5個 "perhaps"加以例證。
c.由特殊到一般排列(specific-to-general
arrangement)
I do not understand
why people confuse my Siamese cat, Prissy,
with the one I had several years ago,
Henry. The two cats are only alike in
breed. Prissy, a quiet, feminine feline,
loves me dearly but not possessively.
She likes to keep her distance from people,
exert her independence and is never so
rude as to beg, lick, or sniff unceremoniously.
Her usual posture is sitting upright,
eyes closed, perfectly still. Prissy is
a very proper cat. Henry, on the other
hand, loved me dearly but possessively.
He was my shadow from morning till night.
He expected me to constantly entertain
him. Henry never cared who saw him do
anything, whether it was decorous or not,
and he usually offended my friends in
some way. The cat made himself quite comfortable,
on the top of the television, across stranger's
feet or laps, in beds, drawers, sacks,
closets, or nooks. The difference between
them is imperceptible to strangers.
本段的主題句是段首句，它僅提出一個問題：為什麼兩隻貓會被搞混。然後對兩者進行比較，末句才下結論。
- 形連
行文的邏輯性常常要靠適當的轉換詞語及其他手段來實現。請讀下面這一段文字並找出文中用以承上啟下的詞語：
Walter's goal in life
was to become a successful surgeon.
First, though, he had to get through
high school, so he concentrated all
his efforts on his studies --- in particular,
biology, chemistry, and math. Because
he worked constantly on these subjects,
Walter became proficient in them; however,
Walter forgot that he needed to master
other subjects besides those he had
chosen. As a result, during his junior
year of high school, Walter failed both
English and Latin. Consequently, he
had to repeat these subjects and he
was almost unable to graduate on schedule.
Finally, on June 6, Walter achieved
the first step toward realizing his
goal.
本文中起承上啟下的詞語有兩種，一種是轉換詞語(transitional
words or phrases)，另一種是起轉換作用的其他連接手段(linking
devices)。前者依次有：first, though, so, in
particular, and, because, however, besides,
as a result, both…and, consequently,
and, finally.後者依次是：he, he, his, his,
he, these, them, he, those, his, he,
these, his.本段中共有辭彙105個，所使用的轉換詞語及其他連接用語共26個詞，約占該段總辭彙量的四分之一。由此可見，掌握好transitions不僅對行文的流暢(smoothness)有益，而且對於學生在半個小時內寫足四級短文所要求的120個詞也是不無好處的。
一個段落裏如果沒有transitions也就很難有coherence了，我們看下面一個例子：
Speaking and writing are different
in many ways. Speech depends on sounds.
Writing uses written symbols. Speech
developed about 500 000 years ago. Written
language is a recent development. It
was invented only about six thousand
years ago. Speech is usually informal.
The word choice of writing is often
relatively formal. Pronunciation and
accent often tell where the speaker
is from. Pronunciation and accent are
ignored in writing. A standard diction
and spelling system prevails in the
written language of most countries.
Speech relies on gesture, loudness,
and rise and fall of the voice. Writing
lacks gesture, loudness and the rise
and fall of the voice. Careful speakers
and writers are aware of the differences.
本段中除了第6句開頭出現一個起過渡作用的"it"之外，沒有使用其他的過渡詞語。這樣，文中出現許多重復的詞語，全段讀起來也顯得生硬而不自然。如果加上必要的過渡詞語來修飾的話，這一段就成了下面一個流暢連貫的段落：
Speaking and writing are different
in many ways. Speech depends on sounds;
writing, on the other hand, uses written
symbols. Speech was developed about
500 000 years ago, but written language
is a recent development, invented only
about six thousand years ago. Speech
is usually informal, while the word
choice of writing, by contrast, is often
relatively formal. Although pronunciation
and accent often tell where the speaker
is from, they are ignored in wiring
because a standard diction and spelling
system prevails in most countries. Speech
relies on gesture, loudness, and the
rise and fall of the voice, but writing
lacks these features. Careful speakers
and writers are aware of the differences.
4.
有損連貫性的幾種情況：
考生在寫作中經常出現下面幾種錯誤：
- 不必要的改變時態，比如：
In the movie, Robert Redford was a spy.
He goes to his office where he found everybody
dead. Other spies wanted to kill him,
so he takes refuge with Julie Christie.
At her house, he had waited for the heat
to die down, but they come after him anyway.
- 不必要的改變單複數，比如：
Everybody looks for satisfaction in
his life. They want to be happy. But if
he seeks only pleasure in the short run,
the person will soon run out of pleasure
and life will catch up to him. They need
to pursue the deeper pleasure of satisfaction
in work and in relationships.
- 不必要的改變人稱，比如：
Now more than ever, parents need to
be in touch with their children's activities
because modern life has the tendency to
cause cleavages in the family. You need
to arrange family like it so that family
members will do things together and know
one another. You need to give up isolated
pleasures of your own and realize that
parents have a set of obligations to sponsor
togetherness and therefore sponsor knowledge.
因此寫作中，一定要注意時態，人稱以及數的變化是否正確，要注意保持一致。
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