Don’t mix subjects

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Long, continuous text can be extremely hard to read, especially when it covers various subjects. Long sections of continuous text also make it almost impossible to skim a text for specific information.

 1  Don’t mix various subjects within one paragraph. If there’s a new subject, start a new paragraph.

It’s perfectly OK if sometimes there’s only one sentence within a paragraph. Don’t combine paragraphs or add needless text only for the sake of building a “complete” paragraph.

As a general rule, start a new paragraph for each new idea, but don’t start a new paragraph for each new sentence. A good paragraph length is about 2 to 5 lines.

 2  Don’t mix various subjects within one sentence. If there’s a new subject, start a new sentence.

In procedures, don’t describe more than 2 steps in the same sentence (see Writing procedures).

In warnings, only mention one cause of the hazard per sentence (see Writing warnings).

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Examples    1 

No:

You can use the camera for taking pictures and for making short movies. Possible resolutions for pictures are a x b pixels and c x d pixels. Possible resolutions for movies are e x f pixels and g x h pixels. Pictures can be saved in JPG format; movies can be saved in AVI format.

(Several subjects are mixed within this paragraph.)

Yes:

You can use the camera to take pictures and to make short movies.

Possible resolutions for pictures are a x b pixels and c x d pixels. Possible resolutions for movies are e x f pixels and g x h pixels.

Pictures can be saved in JPG format; movies can be saved in AVI format.

(Here, the subjects are separated into sections: what you can do with the camera (first paragraph), the possible resolutions (second paragraph), and the formats (third paragraph).)

Yes:

You can use the camera to take pictures and to make short movies.

Possible resolutions for pictures are a x b pixels and c x d pixels. Pictures can be saved in JPG format.

Possible resolutions for movies are e x f pixels and g x h pixels. Movies can be saved in AVI format.

(Here, the information is rearranged. The idea of the second paragraph is “pictures”; the idea of the third paragraph is “movies.”)

Yes:

Camera A has been designed for children. Camera B has been designed for adults.

(There’s no new paragraph because the direct comparison of both models is one common subject.)

Yes:

Camera A has been designed for children.

You can use the camera to:

take pictures

make short movies

Each function can be activated with a single key.

(Here, there are separate paragraphs because there are several independent ideas: the fact that the camera is for children, the different things you can do with the camera, and the fact that each function can be activated with a single key.)

Examples    2 

No:

You can use the text import function, which can import PDF files, Word files, and XML files, to take over texts that were written with another program.

Yes:

You can use the text import function to take over texts that were written with another program. You can import PDF files, Word files, and XML files.


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