On the other hand, many writers see articles and essays more in terms of a piece of music. Steven King calls them the rhythm section of his prose orchestra. King says paragraphs help keep the "beat" of whatever he is writing.
Paragraphs are an argument I personally have frequently with English teachers. When my daughter was in high school. I deliberately taught her to write concisely. Her English teacher critisized her essays for too many choppy sentences. I think she was done a disservice.
I was taught to write as a Journalist. Because undeniable identification is so important in news, qualifiers in sentences tend to stretch out the number of words in sentences and in paragraphs. Rather than the need for identifiers giving permission for windy paragraphs, this special need makes clear, concise prose even more important.
Heaven knows how many sentences wind around endlessly with phrases and clauses ad infinitum. In a world that increasingly communicates in 140 character bundles, saying exactly what you mean is essential.
You'll notice if you look at past entries on this blog, I have lots of paragraphs. I'm trying to accomplish a number of goals.
I'm trying to keep the ideas to little bites rather than whole mouthfuls. Ideas are more easily understood swallowed tiny rather than taken in big gulps. Think of paragraphs as cheeseburgers. You want the reader to chew them completely or they can become lodged in the food pipe.
Like Steven King, I try to establish a beat to my writing. Varying sentence lengths keep folks interested. Shorter paragraphs give readers a chance to jump in and out of an article. Long patches of gray type make all but the most determined readers groan like they are being asked to swim through molasses.
I watch for my own bad habits. I write too many sentences with introductory phrases and too many with a series of clauses separated by commas. When sentence lengths and senetence construction are consciously variable, it keeps readers more interested in the subject matter. Perhaps small variations help to keep a little surpise in the composition.
Some very good writers will disagree vehemetly with the suggestions I've just made. You pays your money. You takes your choices.
Al Portner's "The Assignment Desk, LLC" provides
creatives staffing for all your company's projects.
TAD offers prevetted writers, photographers,
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