The one phrase paragraph
Reading through an article on a certain popular news website I realised that there is something I really dislike: the very short, one-phrase paragraph.
I'm trying to work out why, and I think it is because it is too easy. I believe a journalist's job is to make an impact with how things are described not the way the words are physically arranged on the page. If a phrase has a paragraph to itself it immediately stands out. It is a gimmick, and like all gimmicks it is interesting at first but becomes irritating with overuse. The one phrase paragraph is pretentious.
So stop it.
(And that is a message to myself too)
I'm trying to work out why, and I think it is because it is too easy. I believe a journalist's job is to make an impact with how things are described not the way the words are physically arranged on the page. If a phrase has a paragraph to itself it immediately stands out. It is a gimmick, and like all gimmicks it is interesting at first but becomes irritating with overuse. The one phrase paragraph is pretentious.
So stop it.
(And that is a message to myself too)
posted by Clare Dudman at 8:26 am
7 Comments:
Clare, I rarely disagree with you, but I have to on this one. Yes, it can be overused like any format, but I don't think it's just a gimmick. I think it's a valuable tool for emphasis, and it works for me. Sorry.
I liked it at first Brian, but I have completely gone off it now - I think just because it is being overused. Like lots of things (exclamation marks and expletives, for instance) they lose impact if they are in every article. I haven't been aware of it in your posts, though, I have to say.
For me the one-phrase paragraph(e.g. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12005802) has become an irritating distraction from what is being said. I am going to strive to banish it from my own writing.
And also strive for mastery of the comma, which you keep leaving out.
That's the key word here - overuse. It's the same with swearing. Compare the language used in Reservoir Dogs to the single 'fuck life' at the end of Beckett's Rockaby. Anything can be overused. Metaphors are great but a poem that's just line after line of metaphor can wear you down.
I agree completely, Jim.
I'm guilty of using this technique periodically, Clare. I certainly hope I'm not over-using it. Gotta keep an eye on that.
I think we all do, Mary. As Jim says I think it when it is over-used that it becomes truly tedious.
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