How Long Is a Paragraph?

If we are aiming to write a paragraph—that is clear, concise, coherent, and engaging—nothing is more difficult than deciding its right length. Should it be a one-sentence paragraph, or completely cover a page? Long or short, which is better?

Most writers are fondly in support of short paragraphs. They have praised the short for its visual help, and scorned the long for its formidability. Here are two quotations from two notable writers whose writing books have given a helping hand to millions of other writers across the globe:

“Enormous blocks of print look formidable to readers, who are often reluctant to tackle them. Therefore, breaking long paragraphs in two, even if it is not necessary to do so for sense, meaning, or logical development, is often a visual help.”

Then:

“Keep your paragraphs short. Writing is visual—it catches the eye before it has a chance to catch the brain. Short paragraphs put air around what you write and make it look inviting, whereas a long chunk of type can discourage a reader from even starting to read.”

The first is from “The Elements of Style” by William Strunk and E.B. White. The second is from “On Writing Well” by William Zinsser. Of course, they have shown us that the readers’ sympathy is with the writers of short paragraph. After all, the readers want to be with a writer who is sensitive to their plights; not the ones lost in his (or her) own writing thoughts. But when is a paragraph short, and what makes it long?????

Generally, there are two ways to gauge the length of a paragraph. One way is to look at it by its wordcount. And going by this, a short paragraph should contain between 100 to 200 words. The second way to measure the paragraph length is by how many sentences it has. And on this, five or six sentences caps a short paragraph.??

Meanwhile, many people would argue that neither the wordcount nor the sentence-count establishes the ground law for writing an effective paragraph. A paragraph may run far beyond 200 to 500 words and still effectively communicate the writer’s idea. William Faulkner once writes 1,288 words for a paragraph in Absalom. And for the sentence count, a-one-sentence quotation completely stands for a paragraph. Even if it’s not a quotation, a sentence can be written for a paragraph for its emphasis.

But not all of us would write 1,288 words for a paragraph and still able to express our thought clearly, coherently, concisely, and captivatingly. Although, all of us is capable of churning our five-sentence-paragraphs to one-sentence-paragraphs, and unfortunately, that’s the path many writers are trending today. These writers are lost in the lust of oversimplifying the readers’ work for them but end up sending the readers away. Why??

A succession of one-sentence-paragraphs is as distracting as a paragraph that’s too long. The write-up ends up looking like an endless shopping list. The formidable list also makes the readers to tremble; how the writer is overdoing his work scares them. Moreso, a succession of these tiny sentences is difficult to express the writer’s idea coherently, concisely, and captivatingly, even if each sentence is clear and dazzling as the diamond gem.