What writers and others say
“A four-word paragraph after one of 64 words can pack a punch.”
— Roy Peter Clark, senior scholar, The Poynter Institute, in Writing Tools
“The paragraph is essentially a unit of thought, not of length. … A succession of very short ones is as irritating as very long ones are wearisome.”
— H.W. Fowler, British grammarian, in Modern English Usage
“The purpose of paragraphing is to give the reader a rest. The writer is saying to him: ‘Have you got that? If so, I’ll go on to the next point.’”
— H.W. Fowler, British grammarian, in Modern English Usage
“Paragraphing is also a matter of the eye. A reader will address himself more readily to his task if he sees from the start that he will have breathing-spaces from time to time than if what is before him looks like a marathon course.”
— H.W. Fowler, British grammarian, in Modern English Usage
“Three-bowler: number of bowls of oatmeal your readers fall asleep in while reading your lead.”
— Cynthia Gorney, former Washington Post reporter
“Automatically hitting the return at every period is a sad substitute for purposeful story organization.”
— Paula LaRocque, author of Championship Writing
“An effective lead paragraph is usually either one or two sentences. Once you get to three or more, it just looks like you don’t know where the Enter key is.”
— Chris Smith, senior lead communications specialist, Entergy Communications
“Don’t get carried away with super-short paragraphs. The secret to one-sentence paragraphs is to use them like a spice: A pinch of cumin can make a meal more savory, but I don’t want to eat a plateful of the stuff.”
— Ann Wylie, writing coach and author of RevUpReadership.com
“If your paragraph is too long, you might as well stamp it with red ink: ‘Don’t bother reading this paragraph.’”
— Ann Wylie, writing coach and author of RevUpReadership.com
“Long paragraphs are a visual predictor that a story won’t work. You must cut the meat into little pieces.”
— Jon Ziomek, professor at the Medill School of Journalism
Reach more readers with tight writing
Would your piece be twice as good if it were half as long? Yes, say readability experts.
So how long should your message be? Your paragraphs? Your sentences? Your words? What reading ease level should you hit?
Learn how to write clearer, more concise messages at our clear-writing course.
