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# Paragraph Counter

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Words/Paragraph
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Words
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## Welcome to our Online Paragraph Counter!

To get started, enter some text into the text box. As you type you will notice the paragraph count being updated in real-time on the top left of your screen.

As an added bonus, we included both the character and word count as well on the top right of the screen.

Next to this button is the Copy Text button. Click this to copy the text within the text box.

## How are paragraphs calculated?

Any time you start a new line containing text the paragraph count will be incremented.

Please note that each item in a bulleted list will count as a paragraph.

This is consistent with how Microsoft Word counts paragraphs.

However Google Docs, possibly the biggest alternative to Microsoft Word doesn't even have a paragraph count feature.

## What is the ideal paragraph length?

The ideal paragraph length depends on the type of writing.

### When to use short paragraphs

For example, if writing a blog article it is best to keep paragraphs short.

Yoast, who created one of the most popular SEO tools for bloggers even penalizes your SEO score if you have a paragraph more than 150 words.

It is common practice among the blogging/SEO community to keep paragraphs short.

Many times the paragraphs will be just one sentence.

Kind of like this.

Or this.

The idea behind it is that shorter paragraphs allow you to more easily digest the text since you are able to break it up into chunks.

Smaller chunks and lots of headings, make it easier on the brain to scan the text.

### Shorter paragraphs take up more room

Another benefit is the fact that it is able to take up more room on the page.

Many students, if given the task of writing a 2-page essay will adjust the font-size, margins, spacing etc. to make it reach the 2-page limit.

In the same way, many bloggers instead of condensing their writing into one block of text, will break it into lots of small paragraphs to make the text appear longer.

The longer the text, the more advertisements can be fit inside it.

Which is why some digital ad companies highly encourage smaller paragraphs.

## When to use longer paragraphs

If you are not writing a blog post or article published on the internet it may be best to write slightly longer paragraphs. Academic papers are a great example. Academic papers don't typically have ads, so there is no reason to try to make the text longer to fit more ads in. Also, people involved in academics probably have longer attention spans and don't need their paragraphs broken up in small chunks so they don't lose interest. Whereas a person on the internet might have a shorter attention span and simply want to be able to skim the most important parts quicker and more easily. As you may have noticed, I made this paragraph right here a slightly longer paragraph just so you can compare it to the shorter paragraphs above. As you can tell it is a little harder to skim through it compared to shorter paragraphs.

The previous paragraph you just read was 148 words which was very close to Yoast's 150 word limit for paragraphs. Paragraphs over 150 words are bad for blogs or internet articles but can be perfectly fine and in some cases preferred for academic writing. It just depends on the context.

## Why use our paragraph counter over the one in Microsoft Word?

The paragraph count can be important, which is why even Microsoft Word went through the trouble of creating their own paragraph count feature. However, it can be hard to remember which of the many settings you have to click in Word to obtain the paragraph count which is why in many cases it can be easier just to Google search "paragraph counter" and come across a site like ours to copy and paste into.

Not to mention our paragraph counter is pinned to the top of the screen so you can see the paragraph count constantly updating in real-time unlike in Microsoft Word where you have to click through all the settings each time you want a new paragraph count.

## Thanks for using our Paragraph Counter!

Now that you have a better understanding of when to use shorter paragraphs vs. when to use longer paragraphs your writing will be drastically improved.

We also hope you enjoyed the paragraph counter at the top of the screen along with the word count and character count.

Thanks for using our tool! If you need a counter with additional features like space count, letter count etc. please feel free to use the main character counter on our home page.