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I like paragraphs that are more than one sentence long

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by sirvaliantbrown, Aug 6, 2007.

  1. cranberry

    cranberry Well-Known Member

    I like paragraphs with two shorts entences, followed by a long sentence and finished off with a pithy quote -- like a nice glass of port following a good meal.

    Please folks. The angst over this kind of stuff is silly. Write well and edit well, but let's stop trying to make hard-and-fast rules where none exist. God, I hate anal editors with little pet peeves like this.
     
  2. shotglass

    shotglass Guest

    Damn, cran, if this were a "little pet peeve," I would have recognized it as such over the last 25 years. How we write should be front and center in everyone's minds.
     
  3. cranberry

    cranberry Well-Known Member

    Shotty, I wasn't speaking to you, specifically. I just don't think copy editors should be changing perfectly good work because they don't like the way it looks. Good writers typically craft their stories in certain ways for very specific reasons. There are perfectly good reasons for six-sentence paragraphs and there are perfectly good reasons for one-word paragraphs.

    With that said, I spent a very significant part of my career at AP and there were always plenty of good reasons to tighten up stories and, yes, even to split up paragraphs. If you're writing broadcast copy, for example, it's an absolute must to use short declarative sentences and to make the story quick and easy to read.

    I'm simply against blanket rules about the size of paragraphs or ledes or sentences. It stunts creativity.
     
  4. BertoltBrecht

    BertoltBrecht Member

    Here's a little Fennelly — the King of one-sentence paragraphs — in rare form.

    http://www.tbo.com/sports/MGBIN7HC35F.html

    Integrity Left The Park Along With 756
    By MARTIN FENNELLY

    Published: Aug 8, 2007

    So the deed is done.

    There's a new home run champion of all time, and it's Barry Bonds.

    The joyless march is complete.

    Baseball - and sports' - greatest record has fallen.

    How far it has fallen is the real story.

    The real story has never been completely told and maybe never will.

    Under that cloud, and the cloud of the man, is how history was made. And there will be no un-making it.

    Oh, you can start pulling for Alex Rodriguez to hit long and prosper. But this was history.

    Barry Bonds made history.

    He Held Us In Contempt

    It's hard to swallow, but swallow baseball must, because it looked the other way.

    No. 756 should have been a moment to remember for all time. And it will be, mostly for all the wrong reasons.

    Are you going to tell your children where you were?

    Understand one thing:

    Barry Bonds isn't the victim.

    He should take his record and go home.

    If he is eventually indicted, it won't be because of a witch hunt. And don't forget his former mistress' nude pictorial in the November issue of Playboy.

    Barry, Barry, he's our man!

    He held his game in contempt. He held us in contempt. Don't forget that.

    Polls have shown that a higher percentage of blacks than whites believed in him as he chased Henry Aaron.

    I'm sure some white people jeer Bonds for the wrong reasons, the same reasons that Aaron had to hit through 33 years ago.

    But I don't think this was a racial divide. Bonds was chasing a black man.

    Barry Bonds chased down Henry Aaron - and he did it in a way Aaron never would have. Don't try telling me different.

    And don't bother with the everyone-was-doing-it argument.

    What's one of the first things our parents taught us as children? Just because everyone else is doing something doesn't make it right, or mean you have to do it, too.

    It's all in the timing, I guess. Nine years ago, Mark McGwire hit his 62nd home run to move past Roger Maris, a man every bit as honorable as Aaron.

    We couldn't wait to embrace Big Mac.

    And then he was gone.

    He got out at the right time.

    It was left to Barry Bonds to hit home runs in this age of awareness - and disgust. McGwire's pathetic performance before Congress during steroids hearings has made his 62 look tiny, just like Bonds' 71st after it. Just like 756.

    This should be a moment we'll never forget.

    And we can't wait to forget it.

    When Will Integrity Return?

    The record isn't the victim. Hank Aaron isn't the victim. Roger Maris wasn't. Those men stand taller now. They're the people's home run champions.

    The real victim is any honest baseball player over the past decade who hit an honest home run. The victim is any high school kid who took something bad because that's what the sluggers did.

    Barry Bonds hit hundreds of honest home runs. I believe that. I think he's one of the great talents in history. His batting eye alone makes his legend. He had it all. That's what makes his story so pathetic.

    He'll make the Hall of Fame. I don't know how I'll ever vote for him, though I'm sure someone will tell me that there's no way of telling who used and who didn't. So we'll convict everyone and Barry will ride into Cooperstown.

    But make no mistake:

    Integrity got taken out of the park with 756.

    I don't know when it will be back.

    This should have been a great night.

    There's a new home run champion of all time, and it's Barry Bonds.

    You can look it up.

    Or you can throw up.

    It's history just the same.
     
  5. earlyentry

    earlyentry Member

    Where might I find that story?
     
  6. buckweaver

    buckweaver Active Member

    http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/digging-grave-an-honor.htm

    (Pardon the shitty font and background. But there you go. Oh, and bring a tissue.)
     
  7. Simon_Cowbell

    Simon_Cowbell Active Member

    Great stuff.

    Still, though... ONE paragraph?
     
  8. Simon_Cowbell

    Simon_Cowbell Active Member

    If one feels the graph is too long (unlike the Edna example which is lightning quick), that certainly IS a good enough reason to split it up, or rewrite it.
     
  9. Simon_Cowbell

    Simon_Cowbell Active Member

    I simply don't think most writers have the capability to pull off long paragraphs.

    Sad But True.
     
  10. thegrifter

    thegrifter Member

    Here's something even worse. I know of a bunch of young writers who provide a bunch of crappy one-sentence transitions because that's what so many editors tell them. It kills their writing and I believe it stunts their professional growth.
     
  11. Monroe Stahr

    Monroe Stahr Member

    Of course, Hemingway was a former KC Star staffer whose famous quote about the business was: "It can help anyone learn to write -- as long as you get out before it ruins you." (Or something to that effect.)

    Papa's one-sentence paragraphs may have had less to do with his literary genius than with his newspaper background.
     
  12. earlyentry

    earlyentry Member

    Thanks for the link, Buck.
     
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