Squirrels: Paragraph Sizes

In journalism, we try to write in short paragraphs, with any single graf containing one main point OR one supporting idea OR one supporting quote.

That's intended to make sure that different points and details stand out, instead of being lost in a mega-paragraph. It also means many grafs will be only one or two sentences long.

Really, whether you have to start a new graf has nothing to do with size; rather, it's whether you have different types of information sets. So, I would say the following graf should be split up, even though it's pretty short ...

 

“There was a big squirrel’s nest in the corner where the light wires were,” Brookes said. The replacement of the wiring cost $184, Brookes said.

 ... because you have two information sets: the main point in the first sentence, and then the supporting quote in the second. So I would do this:

“There was a big squirrel’s nest in the corner where the light wires were,” Brookes said.

The replacement of the wiring cost $184, Brookes said.

... which I know looks weird. The grafs look too small, if we're going by what we learned in English comp. But also keep in mind that in writing for newspapers and magazines, you have very narrow column widths, so to a reader the two grafs would probably look more like this:

“There was a big squirrel’s

nest in the corner where

the light wires were,” 

Brookes said.

The replacement of the

wiring cost $184, Brookes

said.

... and now the grafs don't look so tiny, do they?
Let's look at this graf:

--> School dietician Linda Kasparov said she had a similar experience. Kasparov said she was driving home when the headlights, speedometer, and oil pressure gauge all quit working on her new car. Kasparov said she then pulled into a service station to find out what was wrong. She said the attendant was shocked when he opened the hood. 

... which, when it has its column width narrowed, looks like this:

School dietician Linda
Kasparov said she had
a similar experience.
Kasparov said she was
driving home when the
headlights, speedometer,
and oil pressure gauge
all quit working on her
new car. Kasparov said
she then pulled into a
service station to find
out what was wrong. She
said the attendant was
shocked when he opened
the hood.  

Kind of a big graf, right? Now, let's split it up:


School dietician Linda
Kasparov said she had
a similar experience.


Kasparov said she was
driving home when the
headlights, speedometer,
and oil pressure gauge
all quit working on her
new car.

Kasparov said she then
pulled into a service
station to find out what
was wrong.

She said the attendant was
shocked when he opened
the hood.
  

Now, key points stand out a bit more clearly. It's not a big jumble of text. And that's why we want to write in short grafs; to amplify key points and not let ideas get buried in a sea of words.

If in doubt, hit the "return" key. It wasn't your friend in English comp, but you all are pals now.