● TranscribedEnglishHabits
Atomic Habits
👤 J J Thomes⏱ N/A
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This is book about habits.
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Information
AuthorJ J Thomes
CategoryHabits
DurationN/A
LanguageEnglish
Published16/04/2026
Rating0/5 (0)
📝 1026 words • 5 pages
Aparagraph(fromAncientGreekπαράγραφος(parágraphos)'towritebeside')isaself-containedunitofdiscourseinwritingdealingwithaparticularpointoridea.Thoughnotrequiredbytheorthographicconventionsofanylanguagewithawritingsystem,paragraphsareaconventionalmeansoforganizingextendedsegmentsofprose.HistoryCuneiformisoneoftheoldestsurvivingformsofwriting.ItwasusedinMesopotamiatocomposeatremendousnumberoftextsonclaytablets,thousandsofwhichsurvivetothepresentday.Cuneiformhadnoparagraphsorevenspacingbetweenwordswiththesymbolsallwrittendirectlyadjacenttooneanother.[1]Egyptianhieroglyphicswerealsounspaced,[2]butastheywroteonpapyruswithink,Egyptiansscribesintroducedthepracticeofrubrication:thescribesusedblackinkforthemainbodytextandcontrastingredinkforheadings.[3]Greekscribesdevelopedotherapproachestoorganizingtext,althoughtheearliestGreekandLatindocumentswerewritteninsolidblocksofcapitalletterswithlittletonospacing,paragraphbreaks,orpunctuation.SomeoftheoldestGreekinscriptionswerewrittenboustrophedon(literally'astheoxturns')wherethedirectionofthetext'sflowandthedirectionthelettersfacewouldswitchattheendofeachline,asanoxplowingafieldwouldreversedirections.Overtime,textdirection(lefttoright)becamestandardized.WorddividersandpunctuationweredevelopedinHellenisticAlexandria,butwereonlygraduallyadoptedovercenturies.Literaturescholarsbelievethatearlymanuscriptslackinginpunctuationandspacingweremeanttobereadaloud.[4]Theparagraphoswasintroducedbyscribesinthe4thcenturyADasalineplacedbesideablockoftext.Thesemarginalsymbolsevolvedintoapairofabbreviations.AstylizedK,forkaput/caputor'head',wasplacedatthebeginningofnewsections;aC,forcapitulumor'littlehead',whichevolvedintothepilcrow(¶),wasplacedatthebeginningofsubsectionsthatmodernreaderswouldrecognizeasparagraphs.InmanyEnglishmanuscriptsintheMiddleAges,pilcrowswerealsoplacedinlinebetweensentences.Spaceswereleftatthebeginningofparagraphsinearlyprintdocumentsforrubricatorstohand-drawthepilcrows.Thesespaceswereeventuallyleftun-rubricated,leadingtothemoderntraditionofindentingaparagraph.Usingspacingalonetoseparateparagraphseventuallybecamestandard.[4][5]IndentedparagraphsdemonstratedintheUSConstitutionAncientmanuscriptsalsodividedsentencesintoparagraphswithlinebreaks(newline)followedbyaninitialatthebeginningofthenextparagraph.Aninitialisanoversizedcapitalletter,sometimesoutdentedbeyondthemarginofthetext.Thisstylecanbeseen,forexample,intheoriginalOldEnglishmanuscriptofBeowulf.OutdentingisstillusedinEnglishtypography,thoughnotcommonly.[6]ModernEnglishtypographyusuallyindicatesanewparagraphbyindentingthefirstline.Thisstylecanbeseeninthe(handwritten)UnitedStatesConstitutionfrom1787.Foradditionalornamentation,ahederaleaforothersymbolcanbeaddedtotheinter-paragraphwhitespace,orputintheindentationspace.AsecondcommonmodernEnglishstyleistousenoindenting,butaddverticalwhitespacetocreate"blockparagraphs."Onatypewriter,adoublecarriagereturnproducesablanklineforthispurpose;professionaltypesetters(orwordprocessingsoftware)mayputinanarbitraryverticalspacebyadjustingleading.Thisstyleisverycommoninelectronicformats,suchasontheWorldWideWebandemail.Wikipediaitselfemploysthisformat.TypographicalconsiderationsProfessionallyprintedmaterialinEnglishtypicallydoesnotindentthefirstparagraph,butindentsthosethatfollow.Forexample,RobertBringhurststatesthatweshould"Setopeningparagraphsflushleft."[6]Bringhurstexplainsasfollows:Thefunctionofaparagraphistomarkapause,settingtheparagraphapartfromwhatprecedesit.Ifaparagraphisprecededbyatitleorsubhead,theindentissuperfluousandcanthereforebeomitted.[6]TheElementsofTypographicStylestatesthat"atleastoneen[space]"shouldbeusedtoindentparagraphsafterthefirst,[6]notingthatthatisthe"practicalminimum".[7]Anemspaceisthemostcommonlyusedparagraphindent.[7]MilesTinker,inhisbookLegibilityofPrint,concludedthatindentingthefirstlineofparagraphsincreasesreadabilityby7%,onaverage.[8]Whenreferencingaparagraph,typographicsymbolU+00A7§SECTIONSIGN(§)maybeused:"See§Background".Inmodernusage,paragraphinitiationistypicallyindicatedbyoneormoreofaprecedingblankline,indentation,an"Initial"("dropcap")orotherindication.Historically,thepilcrowsymbol(¶)wasusedinLatinandwesternEuropeanlanguages.Otherlanguageshavetheirownmarkswithsimilarfunction.Widowsandorphansoccurwhenthefirstlineofaparagraphisthelastinacolumnorpage,orwhenthelastlineofaparagraphisthefirstlineofanewcolumnorpage.IncomputingSeealso:NewlineInwordprocessinganddesktoppublishing,ahardreturnorparagraphbreakindicatesanewparagraph,tobedistinguishedfromthesoftreturnattheendofalineinternaltoaparagraph.Thisdistinctionallowswordwraptoautomaticallyre-flowtextasitisedited,withoutlosingparagraphbreaks.Thesoftwaremayapplyverticalwhitespaceorindentingatparagraphbreaks,dependingontheselectedstyle.Howsuchdocumentsareactuallystoreddependsonthefileformat.Forexample,HTMLusesthe<p>tagasaparagraphcontainer.Inplaintextfiles,therearetwocommonformats.Thepre-formattedtextwillhaveanewlineattheendofeveryphysicalline,andtwonewlinesattheendofaparagraph,creatingablankline.Analternativeistoonlyputnewlinesattheendofeachparagraph,andleavewordwrappinguptotheapplicationthatdisplaysorprocessesthetext.Alinebreakthatisinsertedmanually,andpreservedwhenre-flowing,maystillbedistinctfromaparagraphbreak,althoughthisistypicallynotdoneinprose.HTML's<br/>tagproducesalinebreakwithoutendingtheparagraph;theW3Crecommendsusingitonlytoseparatelinesofverse(whereeach"paragraph"isastanza),orinastreetaddress.[9]