A word or two about paragraphs...

[Contrary1]

Many times I will see a subject line that sounds interesting, only to click on it to find it is one long run on post. GD isn't the only forum where this happens, but it is the one I frequent most often.

Due to visual problems (cataracts and glaucoma), I am unable to focus well enough to read these. Making the font larger doesn't help. I know I miss a lot of interesting posts.

I can't be the only one who has a problem like this. With all due respect, I would ask that folks consider this before they click to post a message.

Thank you for your consideration. :hi:

[Codeine]

1. More succinctly;

Paragraphs -- use them! :evilgrin:

[zipplewrath]

2. Not sure what you're looking for?

You want blank lines between each sentence? The number of "lines" will be a function of the width of your screen (generally).

[Codeine]

3. Proper paragraph construction.

A huge block of text is inherently difficult to read, and the thoughts therein to parse. Language conventions exist for a reason.

[zipplewrath]

11. Yes, but 6 sentences isn't considered "run on" by any stretch

I understand such conventions, but a 6 sentence paragraph isn't considered particularly long (presuming they aren't run on SENTENCES). The OP had 2 and 3 sentence paragraphs.

[Common Sense Party]

19. When in doubt, I go with Strunk and White:

"Enormous blocks of print look formidable to the reader. He has a certain reluctance to tackle them; he can lose his way in them. Therefore, breaking long paragraphs in two, even if it is not necessary to do so for sense, meaning, or logical development, is often a visual help."

The LENGTH of each sentence in the paragraph also matters. 6 sentences might not be that many (assuming they are all on the same subject), but six l-o-n-g sentences in one big block is very tedious to read.

[Contrary1]

4. No, not between each sentence...

It's kind of hard to explain. I can read short/medium length paragraphs just fine. But when there are no breaks in the words at all, it all runs together, and I can't focus.

[Common Sense Party]

6. It means don't post something that looks like this:

Liberal groups will spend approximately $11 million on television ads in 45 Democratic-held districts between today and the expected House vote on health care this weekend, according to a source familiar with the strategy. The effort is an attempt to combat the heavy spending by a slew of conservative-aligned groups urging members of Congress to scrap the bill and start over. "Members should know that when they are attacked by hack inside-the-Beltway rackets like Americans for Prosperity, and when they do the right thing, we will have their backs," said a Democratic operative close to the health care effort. There will be two major thrusts of advertising. The first will come from Americans for Stable and Quality Care -- a broad coalition of groups that includes PhRMA and the liberal Families United among others. The group will sponsor two basic ads -- both positive in nature -- in a total of 45 districts. One, which will run in districts represented by Democrats who voted for the original legislation, will tout the immediate positive changes (pre-existing conditions etc.) in the bill. The other, running in seats held by Democrats who voted against the bill in November, will include language that many Democrats say encapsulates their best argument -- that the public will be eligible for the same care as members of Congress. The other major player will be a group led by Health Care for America Now (HCAN) as well as two major labor unions -- Service Employees International Union and the American Federation for State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). That coalition will run ads in 16 Democratic-districts hammering insurance companies and urging Members not to give in to them by voting against the bill.

[Contrary1]

12. I'm unable to read your post...

but find myself in complete agreement. :rofl:

[zipplewrath]

14. So it should look like this?

Liberal groups will spend approximately $11 million on television ads in 45 Democratic-held districts between today and the expected House vote on health care this weekend, according to a source familiar with the strategy. The effort is an attempt to combat the heavy spending by a slew of conservative-aligned groups urging members of Congress to scrap the bill and start over.

"Members should know that when they are attacked by hack inside-the-Beltway rackets like Americans for Prosperity, and when they do the right thing, we will have their backs," said a Democratic operative close to the health care effort.

There will be two major thrusts of advertising. The first will come from Americans for Stable and Quality Care -- a broad coalition of groups that includes PhRMA and the liberal Families United among others. The group will sponsor two basic ads -- both positive in nature -- in a total of 45 districts. One, which will run in districts represented by Democrats who voted for the original legislation, will tout the immediate positive changes (pre-existing conditions etc.) in the bill. The other, running in seats held by Democrats who voted against the bill in November, will include language that many Democrats say encapsulates their best argument -- that the public will be eligible for the same care as members of Congress.

The other major player will be a group led by Health Care for America Now (HCAN) as well as two major labor unions -- Service Employees International Union and the American Federation for State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). That coalition will run ads in 16 Democratic-districts hammering insurance companies and urging Members not to give in to them by voting against the bill.

[Common Sense Party]

15. Exactly. A good writer knows when a paragraph should end.

A bad writer often gets their OP or their post ignored, because 99.98% of people don't like to wade through a massive, oversized block of text.

[Contrary1]

16. Well, it doesn't have to look exactly like that.

But, it is so much easier for me to read. It is very difficult to describe problems to another who has normal vision. For instance, my son is 95% color blind. He gets along just fine, but cannot describe the colors he sees to me since he doesn't know what they are in reality, or how I am seeing them. I figure it is the same when I try to explain it to you.

[Common Sense Party]

17. Really, it SHOULD look like that. Each new idea or change in subject

should begin in a new paragraph.

People need to re-read their Strunk & White. From "Elements of Style":

"Enormous blocks of print look formidable to the reader. He has a certain reluctance to tackle them; he can lose his way in them. Therefore, breaking long paragraphs in two, even if it is not necessary to do so for sense, meaning, or logical development, is often a visual help."

And on a computer screen as opposed to the printed page--even more so.

[LynzM]

21. Another trick I've found that helps...

I don't know if this would help for you, but I figure it's worth sharing. It helps me to resize the browser window so that the paragraphs are narrower. Each line then requires less tracking across and from end to beginning. :)

[Jim__]

5. I have thought about suggesting this inside a thread that has a run-on OP.

I don't have any vision problem; but paragraphs do help with understanding what is being said.

[CrispyQ]

7. I agree - I don't read them either.

White space is your friend! So is proper punctuation & upper/lower case usage. One DUer used to post without a space between sentences. WTF?

If you want people to read your posts, then have the courtesy to make your post readable.

[jody]

9. "If you want people to read your posts, then have the courtesy to make your post readable."

:thumbsup:

[jody]

8. Computer technology has eliminated the need to follow grammar and spelling rules.

:sarcasm:

[bridgit]

10. "A word or two about paragraphs" is a genius title for a novel

:hi:

[DavidDvorkin]

13. I agree

It's a problem for many people without vision problems. Online reading is different from print reading. Short paragraphs and white space help a lot.

[dmr]

18. Agree. I won't read run-on paragraphs.

I just move on to the next.

[Echo In Light]

20. I'd guess some DUers do this to get around the four paragraph max allowed when sourcing articles

[Common Sense Party]

22. Which really defeats their purpose.

They want us to read the article and get informed, get outraged, whatever...

But by smushing it together in one massive block, they ensure that 98% of us pass it by.

I don't know if I could even find 2% who ENJOY reading big text blocks.

[Echo In Light]

24. May be. Impossible to guess if the % is actually that high

[Common Sense Party]

29. We'll see what happens. I just posted a poll asking it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7930405

[Nay]

33. But it doesn't get them around it -- it's 4 paragraphs of the ORIGINAL text,

not however the poster has decided to 'smush' it together.

[Orsino]

23. .

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/nation_shudders_at_large_block_of?utm_source=onion_rss_daily

[raccoon]

25. ITA....a long post not broken into paragraphs is a real turnoff for me. nt

[Better Today]

26. I understand you problem, Perhaps a page reader, voice simulator

will work for you.

However, I disagree with you asking for proper sentence or paragraph structure, on the grounds that many Democrats are not grammatically literate and shouldn't be required to be. Many, many highly intelligent people have issues when putting their thoughts on paper or in type, hence the huge number of editors in the world.

Here is the name of a speech reader for free that I use on my XP PC. It's called MicroSoft Dication, but you can input text (copy and paste, I guess) and it will coarsely read it to you. I haven't explored is use as I'm suggesting, it might well have a way to read directly off the website or screen data.

[Common Sense Party]

28. "Many Democrats are not grammatically literate and shouldn't be required to be."

No one is REQUIRING them to be.

But anyone who posts on a message board for OTHERS TO READ, has an obligation to make their posts intelligible to others, or others will simply ignore those posts.

That's akin to saying that I'm going to move to Japan, but I should not be required to make any effort to learn to communicate in Japanese. The Japanese people will just have to try harder to understand ME.

[Better Today]

32. No it's not. Grammar isn't the same as typed speech. We've already

chased away good people because they were constantly frustrated by the grammar nazis and spelling nazis. This is just typed chatting, it shouldn't be escalated to anything beyond that.

If you don't want to read posts because of grammar, then don't, but don't try to exclude people or demand from people more than that they hold similar Democratic ideals and desires. Otherwise the image of being the elite assholes party becomes a reality, imo.

[Common Sense Party]

34. It's pretty simple. Whatever the mode of communication, one should take

some effort to communicate so that others can understand him or her.

That is the entire point of communication. It is conveying ideas.

If the mode is spoken Japanese, one should learn to communicate in spoken Japanese.

If the mode is Morse code, one should learn to communicate in Morse code.

If the mode is American Sign Language, one should learn to communicate in ASL.

If the mode is written English, one should learn to communicate in written English.

No one is saying that everyone must be a Shakespeare or some wordsmith. But one must be able to get his or her ideas across in a way that conveys meaning to another person. A few grammatical errors or typos aren't going to impede that.

But a shocking, pervasive lack of grammar skills or spelling ability or the unwillingness to type in a way that allows the reader to comprehend...Such a communicator is basically saying, "Ignore me. I can't express myself in a way you will understand." I think those people are very, very rare.

[Better Today]

35. Wow, your POV is so dismissive and disgusting, I hope people

reading here and posting here, realize that not all of us consider a poorly written sentence or paragraph as evidence of a lack of an idea or perspective worth reading. Perhaps you'd also be in favor of political literacy tests before voting, because to use your disgusting POV

"If the mode is voting, one should learn about the issues and people one is voting about."


You sadden me.

[Common Sense Party]

36. If you truly think my POV is disgusting, that says me more about you

than it does about me.

And absolutely people should learn about the issues when they are voting. You honestly don't think they should?

[Liberal_in_LA]

27. good post. I skip long text without paragraph breaks

[TheDebbieDee]

30. I will die someday because the secret to everlasting life was hidden in a run-on paragraph!

;-)

[tanyev]

31. No visual problems here--I just have better things to do with my time

than try to wade through a large block of text.

[anigbrowl]

37. On the other hand...

With very few exceptions, a giant wall of text is a pretty good indication that the content is going to be a complete waste of time. If the writer cannot structure his or her ideas effectively by using paragraphs, it's unlikely that that the argument they are making will be very well structured either. More often, such posts turn out to be incoherent ranting, and I ignore them for the same reason that I ignore people who come up to me on the street talking excitedly about random subjects.

[Common Sense Party]

38. Watch out. You'll be called a mean person by stating such a thing.

[anigbrowl]

41. Yeah, but I won't notice unless it's broken into paragraphs :-)

[cayanne]

39. I have the same problem so I don't read them.

I just move on.

[Skittles]

40. sometimes they just don't know, Contrary

I reply and ask them to use breaks