The movement may be from general to specific, specific to general, or general to specific to general. All the idea development in one paragraph will be connected with clear transitions, either transitional words or repeated wording. Paragraphs will be connected to one another with transitions too. One sentence paragraphs are rare in academic prose because a paragraph implies that an idea will be supported with specific details. However, paragraphs which are too long drag on and lose focus.
Simple sentences are easy to deconstruct because the actor and the action is immediately apparent.
But when the meaning increases in complexity, so does the sentence structure. This phenomena is what accounts for the prevalence of punctuation and grammar errors in academic prose. Compound and complex sentences in which coordinators and subordinators create connections between ideas are essential when making meaning from information. Careful editing for errors and awkward structures is necessary at the sentence level.