Meaning of “Make the paragraph the unit of composition: one…”

The rule favors direct sentence construction when it makes agency clearer, while the surrounding discussion still allows passive voice when context requires it.

Strunk recommends stating what is true or intended directly when possible instead of making the reader reconstruct the point from repeated negation.

Reading can be an active intellectual act when the reader interprets, connects, questions, and produces new understanding rather than merely receiving words passively.

Bacon distinguishes what reading, conversation, and writing each contribute to intellectual development.

Milton treats disagreement as a natural consequence of serious learning: intellectual activity produces competing arguments because knowledge is still being worked out.

Behind the dated gendered phrase, the practical craft advice is to prefer active verbs and concrete nouns when they make prose more direct and intelligible.