Aparagraph (from Ancient Greek παράγραφος (parágraphos)'to write beside') is a self-contained unit of discourse inwriting dealing with a particular point oridea. Though not required by the orthographic conventions of any language with awriting system, paragraphs are a conventional means of organizing extended segments ofprose.
The oldest classical British and Latin writings had little or no space between words and could be written inboustrophedon (alternating directions). Over time, text direction (left to right) became standardized.Word dividers andterminal punctuation became common. The first way to divide sentences into groups was the originalparagraphos, similar to anunderscore at the beginning of the new group.[1] The Greekparágraphos evolved into thepilcrow (¶), which in English manuscripts in theMiddle Ages can be seen inserted inline between sentences.
Ancient manuscripts also divided sentences into paragraphs with line breaks (newline) followed by aninitial at the beginning of the next paragraph. An initial is an oversized capital letter, sometimes outdented beyond the margin of the text. This style can be seen, for example, in the originalOld English manuscript ofBeowulf. Outdenting is still used in English typography, though not commonly.[2] Modern English typography usually indicates a new paragraph byindenting the first line. This style can be seen in the (handwritten)United States Constitution from 1787. For additional ornamentation, a hedera leaf or other symbol can be added to the inter-paragraph white space, or put in the indentation space.
A second common modern English style is to use no indenting, but add vertical white space to create "block paragraphs." On a typewriter, a doublecarriage return produces a blank line for this purpose; professional typesetters (orword processing software) may put in an arbitrary vertical space by adjustingleading. This style is very common in electronic formats, such as on theWorld Wide Web andemail. Wikipedia itself employs this format.
Professionally printed material in English typically does not indent the first paragraph, but indents those that follow. For example,Robert Bringhurst states that we should "Set opening paragraphs flush left."[2] Bringhurst explains as follows:
The function of a paragraph is to mark a pause, setting the paragraph apart from what precedes it. If a paragraph is preceded by a title or subhead, the indent is superfluous and can therefore be omitted.[2]
The Elements of Typographic Style states that "at least oneen [space]" should be used to indent paragraphs after the first,[2] noting that that is the "practical minimum".[3] Anem space is the most commonly used paragraph indent.[3]Miles Tinker, in his bookLegibility of Print, concluded that indenting the first line of paragraphs increasesreadability by 7%, on average.[4]
When referencing a paragraph, typographic symbolU+00A7§SECTION SIGN (§) may be used: "See § Background".
In modern usage, paragraph initiation is typically indicated by one or more of a preceding blank line,indentation, an "Initial" ("drop cap") or other indication. Historically, thepilcrow symbol(¶) was used in Latin and western European languages. Other languages havetheir own marks with similar function.
Widows and orphans occur when the first line of a paragraph is the last in a column or page, or when the last line of a paragraph is the first line of a new column or page.
Inword processing anddesktop publishing, ahard return orparagraph break indicates a new paragraph, to be distinguished from thesoft return at the end of a line internal to a paragraph. This distinction allowsword wrap to automatically re-flow text as it is edited, without losing paragraph breaks. The software may apply vertical white space or indenting at paragraph breaks, depending on the selected style.
How such documents are actually stored depends on thefile format. For example,HTML uses the <p> tag as a paragraph container. Inplaintext files, there are two common formats. The pre-formatted text will have anewline at the end of every physical line, and two newlines at the end of a paragraph, creating a blank line. An alternative is to only put newlines at the end of each paragraph, and leave word wrapping up to the application that displays or processes the text.
A line break that is inserted manually, and preserved when re-flowing, may still be distinct from a paragraph break, although this is typically not done inprose.HTML's <br /> tag produces a line break without ending the paragraph; theW3C recommends using it only to separate lines of verse (where each "paragraph" is astanza), or in astreet address.[5]
Paragraphs are commonly numbered using thedecimal system, where (in books) the integral part of the decimal represents the number of the chapter and the fractional parts are arranged in each chapter in order of magnitude. Thus in Whittaker and Watson's 1921A Course of Modern Analysis, chapter 9 is devoted to Fourier Series; within that chapter §9.6 introduces Riemann's theory, the following section §9.61 treats an associated function, following §9.62 some properties of that function, following §9.621 a related lemma, while §9.63 introduces Riemann's main theorem, and so on. Whittaker and Watson attribute this system of numbering toGiuseppe Peano on their "Contents" page, although this attribution does not seem to be widely credited elsewhere.[6]Gradshteyn and Ryzhik is another book using this scheme since its third edition in 1951.
Many published books use a device to separate certain paragraphs further when there is a change of scene or time. This extra space, especially when co-occurring at a page or section break, may contain a special symbol known as adinkus, afleuron, or a stylisticdingbat.
The crafting of clear, coherent paragraphs is the subject of considerable stylistic debate. The form varies among different types of writing. For example, newspapers, scientific journals, and fictional essays have somewhat different conventions for the placement of paragraph breaks.
Acommon English usage misconception is that a paragraph has three to five sentences; single-word paragraphs can be seen in some professional writing, and journalists often use single-sentence paragraphs.[7]
English students are sometimes taught that a paragraph should have atopic sentence or "main idea", preferably first, and multiple "supporting" or "detail" sentences that explain or supply evidence. One technique of this type, intended for essay writing, is known as theSchaffer paragraph. Topic sentences are largely a phenomenon of school-based writing, and the convention does not necessarily obtain in other contexts.[8] This advice is also culturally specific, for example, it differs from stock advice for the construction of paragraphs in Japanese (translated asdanraku 段落).[9]
^University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill."Paragraph Development".The Writing Center. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved20 June 2018.
^Braddock, Richard (1974). "The Frequency and Placement of Topic Sentences in Expository Prose".Research in the Teaching of English.8 (3):287–302.
