The paragraph is a means of punctuating a longer piece of writing by subdividing it into smaller sections. A paragraph is the basic unit of a written document. Generally, a paragraph is made up of two or more sentences. A paragraph deals with one particular issue or idea. It links with the larger text of which it is part but is also, to some extent, capable of existing independently.In terms of length, a paragraph can vary from just one sentence to a passage having many sentences with a total of several hundred words. Care should be taken over the use of large numbers of short paragraphs, as used in newspaper articles, since these can serve to break up the text to the extent that it becomes disjointed. Conversely, very long paragraphs can result in the text seeming dense and difficult to read.A new paragraph always begins on a new line and the first line is usually indented, although style can vary from one piece of writing to another. Note that the usual style for dialogue is to start a new paragraph with each change in speaker. In the case of a long speech by a single speaker, one alternative is to break it up into a series of paragraphs, each beginning with fresh opening quotation marks, and only inserting closing quotation marks at the very end of the speech, marking where the speaker finishes speaking.
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