[WikiEN-l] As long as we're talking about these trivial conventions...

Sun Apr 27 19:55:40 UTC 2003

At 12:23 PM 4/27/03 -0700, LittleDan wrote:
>Some articles have many one-sentence paragraphs and it
>is very annoying. Whenever I see this, I change it
>into one or two larger paragraphs. What is the
>convention, if any, on starting new paragraphs, and
>should it be changed?

There isn't a specific Wiki convention. The general convention
in writing English is that a paragraph should consist of related
thoughts. If it gets too long, look for a good break point. But
don't run unrelated sentences together into a single paragraph.

If (hypothetical) I'm working on an article about a musician, and
all that's available are her date and location of birth, what albums
she's released, and her unsuccessful campaign for Secretary
General, that last doesn't go in the same paragraph even if it's
only one sentence. The albums could all go in one paragraph, or
each get its own, depending on how much information is available.

-- 
Vicki Rosenzweig
vr at redbird.org
http://www.redbird.org