I’ve been inspired to write this post preparing for a research paper. This is not meant for blogging, but more for writing essays (but could still apply).
In high school, the five paragraph essay was firmly ingrained into our brains. Throughout college, I’ve enjoyed deviating from this standard. The occasional one sentence paragraph will appear. This is fairly easy to integrate into informal, reflection or reaction papers. It is more difficult to integrate into technical, research papers.
But I believe the value is the same. For a class, I spent the last 50 minutes looking at two articles that appeared in respectable periodicals.
Structure 1:
Long/Long/Short/Short/Long/Long
Structure 2:
Short/Short/Medium/Long
Both articles presented scientific ideas meant for a college-educated audience. #2 confused me and I gave up halfway through the last paragraph. Just by looking at the presentation of the paragraphs, you could tell the author kept coming up with more ideas to include and finally jammed everything into the last paragraph. Had he cut it off after three sentences, I would have followed along perfectly.
#1, uses short paragraphs to connect his ideas and make a segway from one complicated idea to another. It turns out that complex ideas presented in a simple format are easier to digest. This simple truth is something everyone should consider.
I’ll say it again – complex ideas in a simple form become simpler. This is the goal of presenting technical information to a less knowledgeable audience.
If you are still stuck in the mode of the 5 paragraph essay, then consider this. If you are just writing longer versions of that style, consider this.
The presentation of your ideas can matter just as much as what you have to say.
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