Can a paragraph be too long in university essay?
I have a 560 word paragraph in a university essay that is 2500 words, is that ok or is it too long?
Original post by Anonymous1502
I have a 560 word paragraph in a university essay that is 2500 words, is that ok or is it too long?
Hi @Anonymous1502
It really depends on your subject and particular essay. What I would recommend is reading through your paragraph and looking for a few things:
1) are you being concise enough? Is there any unnecessary words you could cut out, or rephrase sentences so they are shorter/snappier?
2) are you repeating yourself? It's good to link back to your argument throughout your essay, but it's best not to repeat yourself too much with similar phrasing and repeating of points.
3) Is there anywhere where you start to discuss a different point? If so you can press enter, then tab on your keyboard, this will create a new line but also indent the start of your sentence, which signifies that your new point is still related to the above paragraph, but it just helps break up long paragraphs of text.
If you read through it and think you aren't repeating yourself, there are no unnecessary words to cut out, or places where you can start a new line then indent then that's fine! I wouldn't panic as much about the length of your papragraph, rather focus on the quality of it.
I hope this helps! Best of luck with your essay
Grace
BA History
MA Nineteenth Century Studies (History and English Literature)
Original post by EdgeHillStudents
Hi @Anonymous1502
It really depends on your subject and particular essay. What I would recommend is reading through your paragraph and looking for a few things:
1) are you being concise enough? Is there any unnecessary words you could cut out, or rephrase sentences so they are shorter/snappier?
2) are you repeating yourself? It's good to link back to your argument throughout your essay, but it's best not to repeat yourself too much with similar phrasing and repeating of points.
3) Is there anywhere where you start to discuss a different point? If so you can press enter, then tab on your keyboard, this will create a new line but also indent the start of your sentence, which signifies that your new point is still related to the above paragraph, but it just helps break up long paragraphs of text.
If you read through it and think you aren't repeating yourself, there are no unnecessary words to cut out, or places where you can start a new line then indent then that's fine! I wouldn't panic as much about the length of your papragraph, rather focus on the quality of it.
I hope this helps! Best of luck with your essay
Grace
BA History
MA Nineteenth Century Studies (History and English Literature)
It really depends on your subject and particular essay. What I would recommend is reading through your paragraph and looking for a few things:
1) are you being concise enough? Is there any unnecessary words you could cut out, or rephrase sentences so they are shorter/snappier?
2) are you repeating yourself? It's good to link back to your argument throughout your essay, but it's best not to repeat yourself too much with similar phrasing and repeating of points.
3) Is there anywhere where you start to discuss a different point? If so you can press enter, then tab on your keyboard, this will create a new line but also indent the start of your sentence, which signifies that your new point is still related to the above paragraph, but it just helps break up long paragraphs of text.
If you read through it and think you aren't repeating yourself, there are no unnecessary words to cut out, or places where you can start a new line then indent then that's fine! I wouldn't panic as much about the length of your papragraph, rather focus on the quality of it.
I hope this helps! Best of luck with your essay
Grace
BA History
MA Nineteenth Century Studies (History and English Literature)
For a history essay to be specific
Hi @Anonymous1502 I think yes that does sound like the paragraph is too long, if I were you I would have a read through it then where you feel a point has been made and explained, make a new paragraph after this. A paragraph is defined by "a distinct section of a piece of writing, usually dealing with a single theme" so you don't want to pile everything into one paragraph. One thing markers look for is structure and the flow of an essay, so having concise paragraphs is important.
It shouldn't be hard to do, it's not like you need to go find new information, you just need to make your big paragraph into smaller paragraphs.
- Rosie
It shouldn't be hard to do, it's not like you need to go find new information, you just need to make your big paragraph into smaller paragraphs.
- Rosie
I think the issue here is how many points you are planning to / expected to make. If you're going for, say, ten points which should really be equally important, and one of them gets more than a fifth of the word count you are allowed, you're either going to run out of words before you run out of points to make or you're going to have one super detailed point and several which you've glossed over.
If you're only going to be talking about four things anyway, 500 words per point in a 2500 word essay sounds about right by the time you've got an introduction and conclusion (though you might want to look at breaking them up visually just for ease of reading - a 500 word block with no whitespace is going to be hard work).
If you're only going to be talking about four things anyway, 500 words per point in a 2500 word essay sounds about right by the time you've got an introduction and conclusion (though you might want to look at breaking them up visually just for ease of reading - a 500 word block with no whitespace is going to be hard work).
I think that's probably too tad long from a stylistic perspective. However I've read published papers where there were paragraphs that went on for more than one page, so in general it's not unheard of...I think said papers were poorly written though personally, and it made the paper a lot harder to read. So consider whether breaking up the paragraph would help make your point clearer.
Ultimately it's about communicating your argument so, if in context it's necessary and there is no clear way to break it up then perhaps you have to stick with it (assuming also, there is no unnecessary waffle or excessive florid prose which is making the whole thing longer to start with). But if as above you could break that paragraph down into multiple points, then those probably ought to be (a) separate paragraph(s). Try summarising the paragraph in a single bullet point - if you need more than one bullet point, that's probably a sign you need more than one paragraph!
Ultimately it's about communicating your argument so, if in context it's necessary and there is no clear way to break it up then perhaps you have to stick with it (assuming also, there is no unnecessary waffle or excessive florid prose which is making the whole thing longer to start with). But if as above you could break that paragraph down into multiple points, then those probably ought to be (a) separate paragraph(s). Try summarising the paragraph in a single bullet point - if you need more than one bullet point, that's probably a sign you need more than one paragraph!
(edited 2 years ago)
Original post by Anonymous1502
For a history essay to be specific
For a history essay then I would definitely make sure you are being concise and not repeating your point. Sometimes when discussing a source, secondary or primary, we tend to summarise it rather than analyse what the source is telling us, so I would always recommend reading through your paragraph and looking to see if you are summarising rather than analysing at any point, and if you are summarising cut those sentences out.
Although I didn't often have paragraph at 500 words, I did have one in my History dissertation that was around 550 words, which was all direct analysis and argument which wouldn't make sense to separate up, and I achieved a First in my dissertation. Long paragraphs do not equate to low grades, you just need to make sure you are writing well and formulating your arguments and evidence. You should enter and tab to indent the sentence when you make a new but related point, always do that over having a solid paragraph of text. As I said in my previous comment, it's not so much about the length but the quality, especially for History essays when analysing sources can get quite lengthy!
I hope this helps!
Grace
Original post by EdgeHillStudents
For a history essay then I would definitely make sure you are being concise and not repeating your point. Sometimes when discussing a source, secondary or primary, we tend to summarise it rather than analyse what the source is telling us, so I would always recommend reading through your paragraph and looking to see if you are summarising rather than analysing at any point, and if you are summarising cut those sentences out.
Although I didn't often have paragraph at 500 words, I did have one in my History dissertation that was around 550 words, which was all direct analysis and argument which wouldn't make sense to separate up, and I achieved a First in my dissertation. Long paragraphs do not equate to low grades, you just need to make sure you are writing well and formulating your arguments and evidence. You should enter and tab to indent the sentence when you make a new but related point, always do that over having a solid paragraph of text. As I said in my previous comment, it's not so much about the length but the quality, especially for History essays when analysing sources can get quite lengthy!
I hope this helps!
Grace
Although I didn't often have paragraph at 500 words, I did have one in my History dissertation that was around 550 words, which was all direct analysis and argument which wouldn't make sense to separate up, and I achieved a First in my dissertation. Long paragraphs do not equate to low grades, you just need to make sure you are writing well and formulating your arguments and evidence. You should enter and tab to indent the sentence when you make a new but related point, always do that over having a solid paragraph of text. As I said in my previous comment, it's not so much about the length but the quality, especially for History essays when analysing sources can get quite lengthy!
I hope this helps!
Grace
Thank you so much
PRSOM
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