The Great Wall of Text... and why it's bad

[Volcove]

First, let me tell you what is a Wall of Text.

A Wall of Text is a bunch of 'paragraphs' clustered together making a giant paragraph.

A Great Wall of Text which is either a WHOLE post in a single paragraph, or a huge long line of text where in it is divided into paragraphs, but is extremely long and causes tremendous soreness. It can easily be stopped by adding sections in between intervals of paragraphs, or images to rest the eyes.

Disadvantages

Before I tell you what's bad about it, why don't you try reading a post I made, but instead of it's usual paragraph form, it'll become a Wall of Text/Great Wall of Text.

Spoiler: Wall Of Text 

Arthas stood, watching across him for movements. He learned to keep his guard up at all times. "Nevermore, sense anything?" Arthas asked as he kept his eyes on the forest. "No, don't you think we should check on the new warriors?" Nevermore replied, his dark voice echoing within Arthas' mind. A bush shook, on instinct Arthas drew his hammer and readied his guard. A second, two seconds, a squirrel ran out of the bush. Relaxing, he withdrew his weapon and took a breath. The light breeze lightly lifting his hair, his thoughts slowly descending into the past, vile enemies that he has slain, and what he used to be. Snapping back to reality he remembered his daily routine, not asked of him, just what he does to keep himself occupied. Looking left he saw the trail which circled around Masterija, too much thinking, and less walking. He started at a small pace, watching the perimeter for threats, and ready to sound the warriors. Minutes have passed and he reached the area where he stood watch. The same bush rattled and another squirrel appeared dashing away as the wind made the branches of the smaller trees sway with the wind as if dancing. "Satisfied? You waste your time on needless patrolling, the barrier is still here, we are safe for the moment," Nevermore said in his tone of annoyance. "Yes, after all our years of battle you still lack patience, one day this 'patrolling' will work out for the better," Arthas replied. "What you say is true, though very time consuming," Nevermore stated. Arthas quietly nodded and started to head back to the training area, warriors must be in full psych. He always helped struggling warriors on certain facts that could effect the outcome of a battle. A few minutes and he saw the training area, little figures were fighting against each other, their demons, or rather training dummies. This day started like every other day, though he did see new warriors. This day was one of those that he liked, battle was always been a favorite of him, taking pleasure in the cull of those of the same race that had murdered his family. "You ready?" Nevermore asked laughingly. "Evermore," Arthas replied.

Now, a Wall Of Text won't divide the events within a post. It'll just make people wonder how did it go from in the ocean to the sun?

You should also know that that was written in the font "Helvetica", it is smaller than the default font of the forum, so imagine what it would be like if it was in the default font.

Read the Paragraphed Form, and tell me what you think.

Spoiler: Paragraphed Form 

Arthas stood, watching across him for movements. He learned to keep his guard up at all times.

"Nevermore, sense anything?" Arthas asked as he kept his eyes on the forest.

"No, don't you think we should check on the new warriors?" Nevermore replied, his dark voice echoing within Arthas' mind.

A bush shook, on instinct Arthas drew his hammer and readied his guard. A second, two seconds, a squirrel ran out of the bush. Relaxing, he withdrew his weapon and took a breath. The light breeze lightly lifting his hair, his thoughts slowly descending into the past, vile enemies that he has slain, and what he used to be. Snapping back to reality he remembered his daily routine, not asked of him, just what he does to keep himself occupied.

Looking left he saw the trail which circled around Masterija, too much thinking, and less walking. He started at a small pace, watching the perimeter for threats, and ready to sound the warriors. Minutes have passed and he reached the area where he stood watch. The same bush rattled and another squirrel appeared dashing away as the wind made the branches of the smaller trees sway with the wind as if dancing.

"Satisfied? You waste your time on needless patrolling, the barrier is still here, we are safe for the moment," Nevermore said in his tone of annoyance.

"Yes, after all our years of battle you still lack patience, one day this 'patrolling' will work out for the better," Arthas replied.

"What you say is true, though very time consuming," Nevermore stated.

Arthas quietly nodded and started to head back to the training area, warriors must be in full psych. He always helped struggling warriors on certain facts that could effect the outcome of a battle. A few minutes and he saw the training area, little figures were fighting against each other, their demons, or rather training dummies. This day started like every other day, though he did see new warriors. This day was one of those that he liked, battle was always been a favorite of him, taking pleasure in the cull of those of the same race that had murdered his family.

"You ready?" Nevermore asked laughingly.

"Evermore," Arthas replied.

So, since your eyes are probably burning, you do know what is easier, more organized, and the more respectful and non-eye burning way of writing.

How To Avoid It!

If you are used to writing Great Wall of Texts, I suggest you divide your posts into two paragraphs. As you slowly adapt to that, divide them into 3 paragraphs a post, though obviously it's depending on your post length. If you're only writing 50 letters don't divide it into 4 paragraphs!

I hope you learned something, even if this is a little short.

[L]

You're surely correct Volcove, fantastic post

I think some people's problem, though, is that they don't know where a paragraph Should be and instead of looking stupid by inserting paragraph in the wrong place, they leave it out (thinking it's the lesser of two evils).

So where should people be putting paragraphs? A loose rule is that a paragraph should be between 2-5 sentences long. Loose meaning that it can be 1 sentence long if that's all that specific thought is. Or you can do up to 10 sentences, but only in extreme cases and that should be avoided at all cost. But really you shouldn't need to have more than 4-5 sentences if you follow this:

Spoiler: Strunk's Rule 

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.

But typically a paragraph will begin with a "subject" sentence, then follow with "support" sentence/s where you elaborate on the subject, then a "closing" sentence - which really just reiterates the rest of the paragraph and leaves it on a strong note.

Also (as you can see from Volcove's great post) - Speech should, 99% of the time, be a new paragraph (with the attached "he said" and action of course). Like everything else, rules can be broken and you can continue speech in the middle of a paragraph - but you should know the rule first, and WHY you're breaking it, before you break it.

The best book in the world to go read (and should be compulsory) is William Strunk's Elements of Style.