Question: Is there a quick way to show where a paragraph is sitting in the document structure hierarchy? 

```
* Chapter 1
...
* Chapter 5
** Section 4
...
paragraph X

```

I would like to tell that `paragraph X` is sitting under `Chapter 5, Section 4` without having to navigate the cursor away from the text.

Answer: 
Your function is not defined correctly. You don't need the code inside the interactive line, and you don't need the hook function. This should work fine I think:

```
(defun org-show-position-in-text () ;; display outline path of hierarchical headings
  (interactive)
  (message (mapconcat #'identity (org-get-outline-path t) "/")))

```
My half-successful attempt:
===========================

```
(defun org-show-position-in-text () ;; display outline path of hierarchical headings
  (interactive (mapconcat #'identity (org-get-outline-path t) "/")))

(add-hook 'org-mode-hook 'org-show-position-in-text)

```

The above function just about does the job. Only that it throws the error `Wrong type argument: listp` before showing the full path to the heading. 

Please refer to @John Kitchin's answer for the correct code.