by Kate Flaxx

Created on: July 14, 2010

Using paragraphs in Helium articles gives a better chance for the reader of the article to fully understand the article and get the information from it that you want them to have.

An article with well spaced paragraphs has more visual appeal to reader.   The split in the written article gives the reader an opportunity to both rest their eyes and take a pause to soak up the information contained in the article.

This is opposed to articles that have no paragraph splits.  These articles are easy to lose interest in to begin with even if they contain concise and useful information for the reader.  Eyestrain and confusion can be a problem and after reading the first few sentences, the reader may get confused or have to re-read to find where they were up to.

Splitting your written work into paragraphs that contain a few sentences is a very simple thing to do and can be done in different ways such as;

Using sub-headings

Sub-headings, like this one are a really good way of getting your written communication across and telling the reader what they want to know.  Especially if the title you’ve written to has different parts or topics within.  Using sub-headings is a really good way of breaking up information.

You could also start a new paragraph if you start a new topic or a different part of a topic, so you can keep in mind; new topic, new paragraph.  This gives your written work its own part without the use of a sub-heading. Sub-headings are good for some topics but they don’t suit everything.

Apart from sub-headings, you can break your sentences into paragraphs if you are writing a lengthy description of a certain subject.  You may want to explain the topic in detail, so breaking it up into separate paragraphs is a good idea.  It’s good to explain and give the reader as much information as you can, but if your writing is long, break it up a little.

Another way to break up your paragraphs is to just look at your writing and see where you would put a break into it or where you, as the writer would like to rest for a minute.  For example, here’s a tiny story about my dog.

….My dog is a Rottweiler; he’s gorgeous and is the friendliest dog even though his size makes him look a little scary.  He has the most gorgeous coloring and the cutest face.  Rottweilers are not the killers people think them to be…

Just pretend the first part had a sentence or two before it.  Where would you put a paragraph break?

Yes.  Starting a new paragraph at the …Rottweilers are not the killers people think them to be….would be perfect because the sentence has gone from describing a personal experience to the beginning of describing fact. 

Inserting paragraph breaks is a very simple thing that doesn’t take a lot of time.  It’s a worthwhile thing to do especially for the people reading your article.  It’s easier to be interrupted while reading an article and then coming back and thinking, ‘Ok, I was up to the third paragraph’, than what it is coming back to a solid mess of writing.

And don’t worry, you’re writing will still make sense if you space it out; it just depends where you space it.

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