Paragraphs have how many sentences

As a musician I was aware that the silence within the performance was just as important as the notes played. Whatever floats your boat… within reason. Cartland used a lot of ellipses.

Thanks again for an excellent blog. Paragraphs are thought blocks. If a thought is best conveyed by one sentence, fine. If it needs ten sentences, fine. The problem in school is that students will find loopholes, so teachers mandate sentences. Even in college I ran into issues where I needed to back up and organize my research before I could proceed. Thank you. You just disproved my English teacher. She and I had a falling out over this very thing. Thank you for proving me right.

Was just helping my 4th grader with a lesson tonight where it called for a paragraph on a free response question.

Teacher shot back that he would not get full credit because he did not include enough sentences. I apologized and told her that it was my error because we were both unsure of the number of sentences required. She indicated that this was taught in 3rd grade but perhaps he forgot.

I attached your link showing where I had gained my insight. She gave him full credit but we now understand that she would like 5 sentences. The writer needs to make sure the point he is covered from his intro as well as the conclusion has been covered efficiently. Usually I have seen a 1 sentence in a novel where it is someone is making a statement or conversation… Additionally, the writer need to be experienced in being able to write with a 1 sentence paragraph. I think you need to help guide the students here a little bit better otherwise… they will try to do this 1 sentence paragraphing with bad results.

There is no maximum length of a paragraph generally. Of course, a teacher may set arbitrary restrictions. I am sure teachers can give reasons for letting students write paragraphs consisting of sentences. So how do we know when it should be longer and when we can get by with shorter paragraphs. As this depends on audiance and writing style I would assume, I am working in a company settings and Directors and VPs are my typical audiance.

I am still a novice-intermediate with spelling and writing. The proper length of any paragraph is almost always subjective. There is no rule that I know of. Single-sentence paragraphs are common in newspaper articles and fiction, but not so much in business writing.

I have found in my experience with novice writers that they tend to pack more sentences than necessary into each paragraph. Paragraph breaks make reading easy on the eyes. Keep related sentences together. When the topic or the focus of the paragraph seems to shift, start a new paragraph. It tends to be instinctive. In the back of my mind I remembered hearing or reading somewhere that it is possible to have a single sentence paragraph, but in school the three-to-five-sentence rule in drilled into us I think I can recite it even in my sleep , so in reality I was looking for a confirmation.

This article proved to be just what I was looking for and it also confirmed a few more writing tips that I had been unsure of. I also want to mention that I really enjoyed reading how you wrapped up this article.

This happened two or three times in a page paper. Crazy, right? I thought it was a pretty big misperception though. Unless the grader specifically required that paragraphs contain some minimum number, the marking down is indefensible.

But you are probably right to leave it alone and give her what she wants. I also really appreciate that you love the Phillies, and music, and that great list of loves.

Now I remember! I love lots of things—God, my wife, my kids, my dog, my job, my church, books, running, music, teaching, writing, lobsters, cheeseburgers, cookies and cream milkshakes, the Philadelphia Phillies, mountains, beaches, sunny days, bad jokes, and back rubs.

Great post. It is very enlightening, credible, and well-written. I never knew the sentences rule was a myth. Wow, to think after all these years, I never knew. You put this very, very well. The analogy I make with my students is the comment attributed to Abe Lincoln. Great post! Thanks Jim. I use that Lincoln quote when students ask how long a paper should be.

A common question that you may ask while writing an essay for an assignment is how many sentences should you include in a paragraph. In general, paragraphs should have sentences. So how many sentences should you write in a paragraph? To know that, you need to determine what your readers want to see in your writings as different readers may have different expectations from you. A sentence usually has words on average.

Therefore, a paragraph with sentences should be Sentences longer than this should be broken up into separate sentences. Otherwise, they may become run-on sentences. With an average of words per sentence and sentences in a paragraph, you can expect a paragraph to have words. However, this will depend on the expectations of your audience. See the next section for what teachers usually recommend. A lot of teachers and educators suggest that a paragraph section should be around to words long or no more than 5 to 6 sentences.

In the first two sentences, express your idea, and in the next 3 to 4 sentences, provide information that supports your main idea. In the final sentence, come with a meaningful conclusion.

Generally, teachers expect longer paragraphs because they want to observe whether or not you have the required knowledge on the subject. A short paragraph consists of just two or three sentences. Such passages are generally easier for readers to digest. Perhaps, this is the reason the majority of popular books have short paragraphs. New authors also prefer to use shorter paragraphs in their writing. Commercial writers like to keep the paragraph length between three to four sentences. When they write a to words long post, they use a lot of subheadings to separate paragraphs and make them more precise.

Remember, a good paragraph must consist of a key sentence, few supporting sentences, and a closing phrase. When you organize your passage following this structure, your paragraph gives your readers a clear and concise message. It's a simple, almost subconscious way of cluing your reader in on the divisions that underlie your thinking.

Ideally, a paragraph delineates a thought. In antiquity, a paragraph often was a single thought—and often a single sentence, usually a very long one. Writers today, however, tend not to go on the way classical authors did. In academic writing, most paragraphs include at least three sentences, though rarely more than ten.

So, how many paragraphs are enough, and how many are too many? For historical writing, there should be between four and six paragraphs in a two-page paper, or six and twelve in a five-page essay.