Sentences and Paragraphs: How Short Is Too Short?

Greetings again. I hope you’re doing well.

Recently I received an inquiry from an AuthorAID community member. Here it is:

Most of the resources I have managed to encounter so far talk about the maximum length of a sentence or a paragraph. I have never encountered a resource on "how shorter the sentence or a paragraph shouldn't be"! Please advice! Do you have any resource to suggest?

In other words, this researcher was asking about the minimum length for a sentence or paragraph. I’m not aware of rules in this regard. However, here are 2 principles to consider following:

First, a sentence or paragraph should be long enough to be complete. Of course, no words should be missing. And no ideas should be missing.

Second, the length generally should be in the usual range for the kind of writing. For example:

• In newspapers, sentences and paragraphs tend to be short. Some paragraphs are only 1 sentence long. And some sentences are only a few words long. A prize-winning newspaper story that I use in teaching includes a paragraph that is 1 word long.
• In scholarly writing, such as journal articles, sentences and paragraphs tend to be longer. Most paragraphs are at least a few sentences long. Because the norms can differ among academic fields, noticing typical lengths in one’s own field can be advisable.

I’m not aware of resources on minimum sentence and paragraph length. If you know of such a resource, please post a comment.

Until the next post—

Barbara