All rules

Paragraph too long

max-paragraph-lengthon by default (info)Japanese / English

A paragraph packed with so many sentences that the reader has nowhere to pause

Example

Flagged
Sales this term rose by a tenth over last year, and most of the growth came from the new subscription plan that we launched in the spring. In-store sales, on the other hand, fell below last year's level for three months in a row, with weekday evenings down the most. At the store managers' meeting, several people pointed to the competitor that opened nearby and to the thin evening range as likely causes. Next term we will review the evening range and hand out subscription leaflets in store, so that both numbers go up together.
What chaff prints
1:1 This paragraph runs 4 sentences (limit 3)
Fixed
Sales this term rose by a tenth over last year. Most of the growth came from the new subscription plan. In-store sales fell for three months in a row. Weekday evenings fell the most. Next term we will review the evening range and hand out subscription leaflets in store.
What chaff prints
no finding
chaff.yaml used for this example
rules: max-paragraph-length: strict

How to fix

Split it where the topic turns.

Why it matters

A dense paragraph gives the reader nowhere to pause. Short sentences do not make a wall, so it is reported only when it is also longer than that many sentences of ordinary length.

What it does not flag

A paragraph of many short sentences is not reported, as long as it is shorter than that many sentences of ordinary length.

Turning it off or relaxing it

Silence this one spot (in the document)
<!-- stet: max-paragraph-length — reason -->
Relax it for the team (the reason is kept as a comment in chaff.yaml)
npx chaffjs relax max-paragraph-length --why "reason"
Turn it off for the team (chaff.yaml)
rules: max-paragraph-length: off
Technical details
Layer
L1
Status
stable
Severity
info
Languages
Japanese and English
Suited to
blog, business, technical, legal, docs, academic, literature, speech

Levels

Set a level for this rule under rules in chaff.yaml. With nothing set, it runs at the level its genre gives it (see By genre below).

strictup to 3 sentences in a paragraph
normalup to 5 sentences in a paragraph
relaxedup to 8 sentences in a paragraph

These genres set their own numbers for the levels (npx chaffjs explain shows them): legal, legal/statute, legal/judgment, academic

By genre

Runs by default in
technical/spec, technical/readme, blog/tech, blog/essay, blog/owned-media, business/proposal, business/report, business/email, business/press-release, business/meeting-notes, legal/contract, legal/statute, legal/judgment, legal/patent, docs/manual, docs/faq, docs/glossary, academic/paper, speech/address
Turned off by the genre in
literature/fiction, literature/essay, literature/poetry, literature/play, speech/transcript

Genres

Message

This paragraph runs {count} sentences (limit {limit})

Sources

This page is built from the rule's definition file:packages/chaff/rules/max-paragraph-length.yaml