There’s a trend amongst bloggers and copy writers to ditch paragraphs and write each sentence on a new line. It may be a trend, but I’d like to make an argument against it.
Paragraphs have a function, you see. Paragraphs are blocks of text that contain one central thought, one point or argument. As soon as you start a new point, you move on to the next paragraph.
Paragraphs Help Readers
Because paragraphs are supposed to have one key thought, they help readers determine what’s important and what is extra detail or background. In high school, we were taught to summarize articles and chapters from textbooks for instance by choosing the key sentence from each paragraph. When you put these into a summary, you could easily see the line of reasoning.
Using paragraphs therefore helps your reader to see the line of your argument. This is a lot harder to do when you start every sentence on a new line. How will the reader know what is important, what is detail and what the main points of your position are?
Also, many readers are used to reading in paragraphs, it’s how their eyes are trained to read. I myself find it very hard to read longer blog posts for instance where every other sentence starts on a new line. It seriously slows done my reading speed.
Paragraphs Help Writers
Paragraphs don’t just help the reader however; they also help you as a writer. Especially if you tend to write somewhat unstructured, using paragraphs can be a big help to you:
- It helps you determine whether you’re actually saying something, whether everything you write is leading towards a key message.
- You can easily see if you’re building a good case for whatever you’re trying to say, if your arguments are logical and in the right order.
- You can check if you’re not using too many details or including too much irrelevant information.
- You can give extra attention to writing good and even beautiful transitions from one paragraph into the next.
Of course there’s a time and a place for making one-sentence-paragraphs. It works very well if you want to stress a certain thought or if you’re using a repetitive phrase.
But my point is that you have to have a reason for starting a new sentence on a new line, it has to be deliberately. Otherwise, in my humble opinion, it’s really just a case of bad writing…
[Editor’s Note: Be sure to read more awesome tips and tactics in the Focused Blogging series!]
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