在说明文或议论文中，事物的因果关系常被用来作为展开段落的方法。先讲原因，后给结果或者是先给结果，后讲原因。还有一些段落在原因显而易见的情况下可以只集中说明结果;相反，还有一些段落则只涉及原因，例如：
My grandfather's farm has become much easier to manage in recent years. His prize Holstein cows , for example , are now milked by automatic pumps rather than by hand. Also , the eggs his hens lay are hatched in incubators instead of by the hens themselves. The temperature and humidity in the hen houses are controlled by thermostats, not by Nature' s whim; and the amount of food his chickens get each day is determined by a computer rather than by a farmhand's estimates. All that is left for grandfather to go , he jokes, is to sit back and pay the huge electric bills.
六、分类
分类是根据事物的特点分别归类。这样组合段落的目的是为了分清每一种类的性质。例如：
In ferreting the interests of people in space, we are aware that there are probably three reasons. Firstly , it is a plan of looking for other places to hold the overcrowded population on this
earth. Secondly , it is the curiosity of mankind to urge the scientists for the research work, because they desire too eagerly the coming of the day when they can travel freely in space. Thirdly, we are reminded of the mineral sources which are not sufficient to provide for the needs on the earth, so we try every effort to go to other planets in the hope for searching for new resources.
七、一般到个别
大多数的段落以主题句开头，开门见山，点明主题，然后给出具体细节，或是用理由和实例来论证主题。例如：
My ambition is to go to college, but my environment does not allow me to do so. My father has been in some difficulty in supporting me even in the middle school, so it is certainly a greater difficulty for him to pay my expenses in college. And I have five brothers in schools. If I go to college, the burden will be too heavy for my father. Moreover, I am poor in science, and perhaps this will prevent me from being successfully assigned the entrance of a college.
八、个别到一般
这种段落是先给出具体细节，或是以理由和实例开头，而后用概述全段意思的一般性评论作为段落结尾。
此外，还有定义法，这种方式是对某些词、术语或抽象概念下定义。使用段落下定义往往先把一个词限定为总属词类的一项，再把这个词项和同类中的其他项目相区别。