Please split your paragraphs!

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#1

Introduction

So, I’ve seen some people on the forums that write pretty useful topics, but they don’t split up their paragraphs. This leads to their paragraphs becoming huge, which is 10x harder to read than 10 small paragraphs. I have created this topic so that people keep this in mind, which in turn saves everyone else’s eyes.

Here's an example of a paragraph that hasn't been split:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed egestas id tortor vel consequat. Aenean quis sollicitudin nulla. Nam est augue, pulvinar sed interdum ut, elementum quis metus. In nisl neque, ultrices sed felis nec, vestibulum faucibus elit. Donec id eleifend neque. Duis ut massa ac sem cursus semper. Nam varius mi ut ullamcorper tincidunt. Ut malesuada lacus velit, luctus eleifend neque tristique vitae. Nullam urna leo, porta nec suscipit non, venenatis et dolor. Cras vel enim ligula. Donec ultrices dictum metus vitae semper. Sed ut suscipit justo, vel pellentesque nunc. Mauris ultrices orci et suscipit feugiat. Donec scelerisque porttitor felis et commodo. Duis id dictum mi, non posuere eros. Suspendisse nec purus libero. Donec imperdiet quam massa, ut pretium erat scelerisque ut. Sed bibendum massa ligula, et sagittis nisl efficitur eget. Quisque dapibus nulla nulla, vitae malesuada sapien varius at. Curabitur lorem urna, molestie vitae arcu vel, laoreet cursus arcu. Nam nec commodo arcu. Suspendisse eleifend volutpat vehicula. Duis faucibus sem at sem convallis aliquam. Proin a urna mi. In ac eros lacinia, pulvinar turpis ac, maximus velit. Vestibulum mollis lectus vel molestie tempus. Vivamus viverra sollicitudin luctus. In interdum nisi vitae sem rhoncus pulvinar. Nam luctus dui vel risus vulputate finibus. Fusce placerat commodo risus, sed blandit lorem egestas ac. Ut quis magna vitae quam porttitor consequat. Etiam sed eros non leo fermentum viverra. Duis facilisis nisl id aliquam vulputate. Curabitur vehicula odio eget magna cursus, sit amet fermentum enim feugiat. Phasellus consequat lorem ut ullamcorper aliquet. Proin pellentesque bibendum nulla, eu bibendum sapien dignissim et. Nunc sit amet aliquam nisi. Donec magna lectus, fermentum eu nulla et, ornare sagittis sem. Duis interdum pulvinar aliquam. Proin venenatis sapien gravida venenatis auctor. Pellentesque sodales placerat nibh. Aenean ultricies lectus non mollis blandit. Proin massa est, fermentum sit amet fringilla sit amet, tempor vel orci. Donec eget bibendum dui, at molestie mauris. Aenean sem libero, imperdiet quis orci et, tincidunt gravida lectus. Duis sed posuere mauris, vel tristique metus. Suspendisse potenti. Praesent venenatis, sapien sit amet posuere volutpat, ex nulla fringilla libero, ut feugiat sem ex non felis. Ut leo nibh, dignissim non vestibulum volutpat, vestibulum sed nunc. Duis efficitur quam sit amet ullamcorper congue. Etiam efficitur lectus vel ipsum pharetra, nec facilisis nunc mattis. Cras nec turpis non sapien ornare suscipit. In mattis at turpis eget vulputate. Curabitur nec elit at ex lobortis aliquet elementum quis mi. Nunc ut finibus dui. Vivamus non tempor nibh. Praesent eu massa tincidunt, luctus dui quis, maximus tellus. Praesent a tellus finibus, gravida leo eu, semper eros. Nullam et gravida purus. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nam vitae tempus libero. Vivamus iaculis varius sapien, sagittis condimentum dui ornare laoreet. Suspendisse potenti. Duis efficitur purus in posuere dignissim. Nam viverra quis justo vitae venenatis.

Now, one big paragraph split into several:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed egestas id tortor vel consequat. Aenean quis sollicitudin nulla. Nam est augue, pulvinar sed interdum ut, elementum quis metus. In nisl neque, ultrices sed felis nec, vestibulum faucibus elit. Donec id eleifend neque.

Duis ut massa ac sem cursus semper. Nam varius mi ut ullamcorper tincidunt. Ut malesuada lacus velit, luctus eleifend neque tristique vitae. Nullam urna leo, porta nec suscipit non, venenatis et dolor. Cras vel enim ligula. Donec ultrices dictum metus vitae semper. Sed ut suscipit justo, vel pellentesque nunc. Mauris ultrices orci et suscipit feugiat. Donec scelerisque porttitor felis et commodo. Duis id dictum mi, non posuere eros. Suspendisse nec purus libero.

Donec imperdiet quam massa, ut pretium erat scelerisque ut. Sed bibendum massa ligula, et sagittis nisl efficitur eget. Quisque dapibus nulla nulla, vitae malesuada sapien varius at. Curabitur lorem urna, molestie vitae arcu vel, laoreet cursus arcu. Nam nec commodo arcu. Suspendisse eleifend volutpat vehicula. Duis faucibus sem at sem convallis aliquam.

Proin a urna mi. In ac eros lacinia, pulvinar turpis ac, maximus velit. Vestibulum mollis lectus vel molestie tempus. Vivamus viverra sollicitudin luctus. In interdum nisi vitae sem rhoncus pulvinar. Nam luctus dui vel risus vulputate finibus. Fusce placerat commodo risus, sed blandit lorem egestas ac. Ut quis magna vitae quam porttitor consequat. Etiam sed eros non leo fermentum viverra.

Duis facilisis nisl id aliquam vulputate. Curabitur vehicula odio eget magna cursus, sit amet fermentum enim feugiat. Phasellus consequat lorem ut ullamcorper aliquet. Proin pellentesque bibendum nulla, eu bibendum sapien dignissim et. Nunc sit amet aliquam nisi. Donec magna lectus, fermentum eu nulla et, ornare sagittis sem. Duis interdum pulvinar aliquam.

Proin venenatis sapien gravida venenatis auctor. Pellentesque sodales placerat nibh. Aenean ultricies lectus non mollis blandit. Proin massa est, fermentum sit amet fringilla sit amet, tempor vel orci. Donec eget bibendum dui, at molestie mauris. Aenean sem libero, imperdiet quis orci et, tincidunt gravida lectus. Duis sed posuere mauris, vel tristique metus.

Suspendisse potenti. Praesent venenatis, sapien sit amet posuere volutpat, ex nulla fringilla libero, ut feugiat sem ex non felis. Ut leo nibh, dignissim non vestibulum volutpat, vestibulum sed nunc. Duis efficitur quam sit amet ullamcorper congue. Etiam efficitur lectus vel ipsum pharetra, nec facilisis nunc mattis. Cras nec turpis non sapien ornare suscipit. In mattis at turpis eget vulputate. Curabitur nec elit at ex lobortis aliquet elementum quis mi.

Nunc ut finibus dui. Vivamus non tempor nibh. Praesent eu massa tincidunt, luctus dui quis, maximus tellus. Praesent a tellus finibus, gravida leo eu, semper eros. Nullam et gravida purus. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nam vitae tempus libero. Vivamus iaculis varius sapien, sagittis condimentum dui ornare laoreet. Suspendisse potenti. Duis efficitur purus in posuere dignissim. Nam viverra quis justo vitae venenatis.

You’ll probably agree with me that the second text is easier to read than the first, right? People don’t want to read a huge chunk of text, they’ll probably forget what line they’re on.

This doesn’t mean that you should split your paragraphs in random places! Split it where it fits. If you split your paragraphs in weird places, it’ll become a bit awkward and your readers will be confused.

Fin

Hope this helped, and have a good day.

19 Likes
#2

Yes! having split paragraphs is way easier to read and also faster to grab useful information! well done with this one mate.

3 Likes
#3

I agree; the second sample (although placeholder text) was far easier to process, and didn’t look as daunting of a task to read. You can relate this to how programming should be indented correctly; it allows the reader to understand what’s going on.

2 Likes
#4

Another way would be a drop down section like this:

Test

Write whatever you want here

This will greatly help to improve your post because people don’t need to look through all the passages just to find the one they’re looking for but instead just read the titles of the drop down section and read what they want to.

1 Like
#5

I’m so glad someone finically bought this up,

On a forum it is so important to format your messages in a way that’s easy to read, since to be simple having a block of text with no paragraphs and nothing in bold / nothing highlighted is so hard to read.

I would also bring up tho that using features such as bold, italics,

etc.

Are so important to making a good
Post.

2 Likes
#6

People overuse this feature too much. It’s more annoying needing to click open every single one of these than it is to just read the next paragraph. Don’t use Details tags for what should just be simple paragraphs.

16 Likes
#7

I think most people just like the way the Detail tags organize the initial look of their post. It keeps it compact at first and then allows the user to decide what they’d like more information on. I think it’s great that it’s overused.

1 Like
#8

just to add, please add titles and summarise what the paragraph is about especially if it’s extremely long since it’s pretty hard to get the point if you don’t make it clear and just write gibberish

1 Like
#9

A post that isn’t more than a few paragraphs (and there are few that are) probably doesn’t need an organizational structure. Even posts that do should probably be delineated with headings and perhaps include a table of contents at the top (likely overkill for most posts). It doesn’t make much sense to me to hide parts of the post unless they shouldn’t be seen for some reason.

There are reasons for using the detail tag, but I don’t think structuring a post is one of them. As an example, in this post I skipped over an important part of the procedure; instead of silently correcting the mistake, I left it as-is and wrapped the corrected procedure in a detail tag. This is meant to give the reader an opportunity to think about the problem and maybe come up with their own solution before seeing mine.

tl;dr have good reasons for the ways you write and format posts - your fellow forum users will appreciate it!

4 Likes