I am going to put my thoughts about LeClerq's book in the form of jottings that are remarks, considerations, questions, etc. I would welcome your thoughts. Please feel free to respond. Terri says that a paragraph is a basic unit of composition. Paragraphs are expanded sentences, governed by syntactical forces.
Paragraphs are self-contained units of writing with their own unique principles.
Paragraphs are parts of overall discourse, informed by the strategies a writer chooses for the overall piece. Effective writers think in terms if paragraphs, whereas less skilled writers think in terms of sentences and even more less skilled writers think in terms of words. LeClerq says that just as the whole text requires a thesis statement, a paragraph requires a topic sentence. Topic sentences introduce the idea within the paragraph. Topic sentences set the boundaries for the paragraph.