How long is a detailed paragraph

Luckily, I was never told in school, or anywhere, how long a paragraph should be. It sounds crazy! I agree, but when teaching academic writing to non-nativespeakers, the topic-highlighting-concluding structure works well because they often do not have a feel for where a paragraph should logically come to an end.

Academic writing needs to be very structured in order to convey complex ideas in a readable fashion. I would be much more flexible about paragraph length in business writing and narrative writing. After all, we all know the one line paragraph can have tremendous effect. Thank you for this!

Honestly, every teacher has different ideas on this subject, but my current english teacher has taught nothing on how long they feel it should be. I have a paragraph that is a page long, and was just wondering if it was too long! I think that a paragraph should be at least 75 words or more.

I am in my honors english class 9th grade honors and I just googled how many words in a paragraph, and did not see anything, so I am just estimating and sharing. I believe technology, texting, spell check, the internet, etc.

I have actually madea practice of only using it when in a hurry, or in a bind. Of course I am not near the caliber of most others in these comments, writers, teachers, etc.

How Long Should a Paragraph Be? Paragraphs help us organize the information in a document. Consequently, each paragraph should cover one main idea. Try thinking about a paragraph like a tiny essay:. Subscribe to our newsletter and get writing tips from our editors straight to your inbox.

Most of the paragraphs in a document should be a roughly similar length. If you find that they vary a lot, it may be sign that some ideas in your document are underdeveloped and need expanding. However, in longer documents it is a good idea to mix things up a bit, especially if you have a lot of long paragraphs. While editing your work, you may want to break longer paragraphs down into shorter ones.

Look for a point where the focus changes, even if only slightly e. You can then add a line break and, if necessary, a linking sentence. If your document contains too many short paragraphs, particularly in succession, you can look for passages that cover similar topics and combine them into a single longer paragraph.

This may simply involve deleting a line break, but you might also have to consider the overall structure of your document. If you have several short paragraphs touching on the same topic in different places, think about whether they should all be part of one section instead. Select personalised ads.

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English and Rhetoric Professor. Richard Nordquist is professor emeritus of rhetoric and English at Georgia Southern University and the author of several university-level grammar and composition textbooks.

When the document has been written, it is a good idea to read it through in order to see that each paragraph is focused on a topic - not multiple and different ideas. Although there are no set rules for how long a paragraph should be, sometimes, it can be obvious that a paragraph is too long or too short. If it is too long, it could mean that the writer has presented multiple topics; therefore, it would be helpful to divide the paragraph into two, with each one concentrating on one topic.

If a paragraph is too short, it could mean that the idea has been inadequately developed, in which case further research should be conducted enabling more text to be added to the paragraph. Furthermore, it is always wise to abide by the house rules if there are any , as it is not unknown for some educational institutions or universities to set their own rules for paragraph length. Worried you did not get the length of your paragraphs right in your essay or dissertation?

Or indeed have any other academic language-related concerns about your academic text? Why not get our professional dissertation proofreading services experts to help? Our academic proofreading and editing services are completely affordable, quick, confidential and great value for money.