|
The paragraph is the primary unit of English composition. It represents the whole of its parts, which include sentences with phrases and clauses formed by letters and words.
When composing a paragraph, we might ask ourselves how long it should be. The web and social media have greatly altered our approaches to answers.
In his 1936 novel Absalom, Absalom!, William Faulkner wrote 1,288 words in a single sentence, establishing a revolution in form at the time. In 2001, Jonathan Coe composed a staggering 13,955-word sentence in The Rotters' Club. Though innovative in printed-book literature, neither statement would likely be welcome as a sentence or a paragraph online today.
As The Careful Writer's T.M. Bernstein points out, "paragraphing is a visual device to show separations of subjects and to facilitate reading." He also explains that a new paragraph is a greater break in thought than that between successive sentences.
The answer to how long is a paragraph is that it can be of any duration that coheres in expressing its main idea. Depending on style and intent, a paragraph might be one short sentence or a much lengthier passage.
With that in mind, we can still identify factors that will often shape our paragraph lengths. Two such aspects are subject and audience. A personal blog about relationships might have many short, conversational paragraphs of a few lines. A scientific study of northern hemisphere climates may have larger blocks of content.
Format can be a factor as well. For example, paragraphs in newspapers are often shorter because of narrower columns and the need to keep large amounts of information more scannable. Conversely, paragraphs in novels and textbooks will often be longer.
A guideline for paragraph composition can be to begin each one with a new thought or development in a point being made or to indicate a transition from one point to another. Then support that statement with only as many sentences as are needed to be persuasive and clear.
When we are writing online, where so much of today's content resides, shorter is better, as long paragraphs can often repel readers navigating infinite content choices. Ideally, we will write online paragraphs that are pleasing to view as they inform. One approach might be paragraphs that alternate between one to three lines and four to six lines.
Research into paragraph length outside of online writing suggests agreement that a standard paragraph typically contains at least two sentences. A short paragraph might include fifty words or fewer, and a long one might contain 150 to 200 words. Beyond 200 words, the writer might consider how to break the longer paragraph.
In sum, no hard rules exist for how long a paragraph is: Our style, intent, format, and audience will be our guides. At the same time, as precise and eloquent writers, we can aim to write in compositional units that engage and inform without drawing attention to the size of our thoughts and ideas.
(Note: This article's average paragraph length is 45 words.)
|
View and comment on this
article on our website.
|
|
Free BONUS Quiz for You!
[[firstname]], because you are a subscriber to the newsletter, you get access to one of the Subscribers-Only Quizzes. Click here to take a Than vs. Then Quiz and get your scores and explanations instantly!
We will be adding many more quizzes this year to our already substantial list of quizzes. If you have suggestions for topics we have not yet covered, please send us a message at help@grammarbook.com.
|
Hundreds of Additional Quizzes
at Your Fingertips
Subscribe now to receive hundreds of additional English usage quizzes not found anywhere else!
Teachers and Employers
Save hours of valuable time! You may assign quizzes to your students and employees and have their scores tallied, organized, and reported to you! Let GrammarBook.com take the hassle out of teaching English!
"Fun to test my skills."
"The explanations really help ... thanks!"
"I can select the quizzes to assign to my students, and then the results are reported to me automatically!"
99¢
QUIZZES
|
Don't need all the quizzes?
You can now purchase the same quizzes individually for ONLY 99¢ each.
Purchase yours here.
|
If you think you have found an error in a quiz, please email us at help@grammarbook.com
|
 |
The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
by Jane Straus, Lester Kaufman, and Tom Stern |
The Authority on English Grammar! Eleventh Edition Now Available
An indispensable tool for busy professionals, teachers, students, homeschool families, editors, writers, and proofreaders.
Available in print AND as an e-Book! Over 2,000 copies are purchased every month!
To order the book, simply click the link to order the book from the GrammarBook.com website.
|
 |
English In A Snap:
68 One-Minute English Usage Videos FREE |
Learn all about who and whom, affect and effect, subjects and verbs, adjectives and adverbs, commas, semicolons, quotation marks, and much more by just sitting back and enjoying these easy-to-follow lessons. Tell your colleagues (and boss), children, teachers, and friends. Click here to watch.
|
|
