Thread: Writing content with smaller paragraphs

When developing content, how many sentences should be in a paragraph? On some sites, I'm seeing 2 sentences at the most. The site owners are well educated so I'd expect that the switch from the school standard of 3-4 sentences to 1-2 sentences is a proven strategy for online marketing. Am I correct?

Your observation is good.

Online readers are characterized by a short attention span. So you need to write for their attention span and write concise sentences and paragraphs if you want to be read.

Essentially, paragraphs are not determined by the number of sentences. They are determined by the completion of a thought. Because online writing needs to be quick and to the point, shorter paragraphs parallel more concise thoughts.

All of this is a chicken and egg thing; it doesn't really matter much what came first. However, if you write well for the web you will have shorter sentences and paragraphs.

As someone who could fill a page with one sentence, given the chance, I find it a real challenge.

I think 3-4 is still a good rule of thumb, as long as they're not 3 or 4 very long sentences. The reading attention span is shorter online. It's even more important than usual to be concise.

I often use shorter paragraphs, as opposed to longer ones. I guess I just got used to writing that way.

Newspapers also use shorter paragraphs, sometimes each sentence is its own paragraph.

Originally Posted by James

As someone who could fill a page with one sentence, given the chance, I find it a real challenge.

I tend to be very wordy as well so I'm glad I asked early on.

Thanks everyone!

I'm about the same way. I could fill a paragraph with a half dozen sentences...I do similar to James however, and finish my thought. Even with that, I will go back and read it over. If I think it is to long, I will cut it in half.

Others are probably right, in cutting sentences short and to the point, but I find it not to my liking.

I actually ran an experiment for a month on another forum where I wasn't allowed to make any posts over 150 words. I realized that I was still able to get my point across and use less words. It was a good exercise!

Imagine if you could create an entire page using Twitter posts?

If you can get your point across in 140 characters or less then you're good.

Just remember to use good grammar and punctuation.

Otherwise you'll lose credibility.

See? It can be done.

God help us if a Twitter post, turns into a paragraph, lol