For many students, deciding the number of paragraphs to be included in their research papers can be a big challenge.
Various factors determine the number of paragraphs in a research paper as we shall discuss later in this article. However, before exploring that, it is important to have an informed estimate on the number of paragraphs that should be contained in a research paper.
How Many Paragraphs in an Essay or Research Paper?
As aforementioned, various factors can determine the number of paragraphs in a research paper. However, to have an informed estimate, we have to consider the structure of a typical research paper.
The number of paragraphs in an essay or paper depends on its length in terms of pages. For instance, there should be 3 paragraphs in a 1-page essay or 5 paragraphs for a 2-page one. This includes an introduction paragraph, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
Essays longer than that have more paragraphs depending on the length and the instructions from your faculty.
Longer research papers have many paragraphs compared to short essays. A typical research paper contains an introduction, literature review section, methodology section, findings and discussions section, and finally the conclusion.
For college or undergraduate research papers, your introduction and the conclusion should be made of a single paragraph each. Therefore, the introduction and the conclusion will account for 2 paragraphs in your research paper.
Now, the literature review should review credible and recent sources that relate to your research topic.
You are required to identify at least 3 sources and review them within the literature review section while making sure that you relate them to your research topic.
Therefore, if we assume that the review of each source will take 1 paragraph, then you are supposed to have a minimum of 3 paragraphs within the literature review.
When it comes to the methodology section, you are supposed to present the different strategies you will use to gather your research data.
Methods of data collection include but are not limited to experiments, interviews, sampling, questionnaires, observation, and so on. Here, you should be clear and succinct concerning the methods of data collection so that the reader can understand.
Furthermore, you should provide the population of the study, the variables of the methodologies, and other important research information.
You should also connect the methodologies to the research hypothesis or main claim. As such, the methodology section will take about 2 paragraphs for a college-level research paper.
The findings and discussion section should contain more paragraphs compared to the rest of the sections. This is because you are discussing the findings of your research and relating them to your topic and original claims. This section should not be less than 4 paragraphs in length.
Therefore, if we add the 2 paragraphs for the introduction and the conclusion, 3 paragraphs for the literature review, 2 paragraphs for the methodology, and 4 paragraphs for the findings and discussions, you will have a total of 11 paragraphs.
Depending on the content you will be writing, a research paper will have between 10 and 12 paragraphs.
You should note that this is for a short research paper. A research paper may be more than 20 pages and therefore the number of paragraphs will increase.
However, the basic structure of a research paper should act as a guideline. The number of paragraphs provided above is a minimum.
Factors Determining the Number of Paragraphs in a Paper
1. Professor’s Instructions
The professor’s instructions are key in determining the number of paragraphs in a research paper. They may be very specific in terms of their number due to the research paper structure they give you.
They may provide the basic or typical essay structure and specify the number of paragraphs required for each section.
2. The Length of the Paper
This is an obvious determinant of the number of paragraphs in a research paper. If the research paper tackles a complex topic, it will be longer.
Check out our word to pages converter tool that can help you know the number of pages so that you can monitor the length of your paper.
A longer research paper will have more paragraphs while shorter research papers will have fewer paragraphs.
If your professor or instructor requires you to submit a long research paper, let’s say 15 pages and more, the paper will have more paragraphs.
3. The Size of the Paragraphs
The size of the paragraph is also a determinant of the number of paragraphs in a research paper. It should be noted that body paragraphs contain individual claims that are supported with evidence within a single paragraph.
If you have a claim that needs further elaboration and more supporting evidence, you may be forced to write a longer paragraph that may consume more space within a page.
Therefore, if the size of your paragraphs is larger, your research paper will contain fewer paragraphs because they are consuming more space within the paper.
However, if the size of the paragraphs is smaller, then there will be more paragraphs in your search paper.
4. Personal Preference
At times, your professor may give you the freedom to come up with your research paper. This will include the number of pages, the structure, the number of paragraphs, and even the topic.
In this case, you will craft your research paper based on your preference. You may decide to include more paragraphs that contain more claims to support your argument or even fewer paragraphs.
You may decide to write larger or smaller paragraphs depending on the content you are including in your paragraphs. In the end, you may have more or fewer paragraphs.
5. Formatting Style
As aforementioned, there is a basic or typical formatting style for college-level research papers. When following such a formatting style, then a research paper will have a minimum of 12 paragraphs.
However, some research paper formats will require you to include more paragraphs in the form of the abstract.
Background of study that comes after the introduction, data analysis that comes after the research methodology, and limitations plus the future scope of your research.
This will add more paragraphs to your research paper.
6. Number of Graphics in the Essay
Some research papers will require you to represent your data in a graphical format so that your readers can easily understand the data. Good research papers should contain a few graphics.
You should remember that graphics are not part of the text hence they are not part of a paragraph. Be mindful that everything counts. Even spaces do count as characters when you are writing an essay or a paper.
Though this is the case, they still occupy some space within the research paper. As such, the more the graphics in the paper, the lesser the paragraphs, and vice versa.
FAQs on Paragraphs in an Essay
How many paragraphs are in an essay?
To respond to this question, it should be noted that an essay is less complex compared to a research paper because it tackles simpler topics and doesn’t require too much research. An essay does not need to be divided into sections like in research papers. As such, they have fewer paragraphs compared to research papers.
Typically, an essay will contain 1 paragraph for the introduction, 3 paragraphs for the body, and 1 paragraph for the conclusion, making the total number of paragraphs to be 5. However, depending on the topic, the number of body paragraphs may increase.
How many sentences are in a paragraph?
A paragraph should have between 4 and 6 complete sentences. However, the number of sentences in a paragraph is determined by the length of an individual sentence within the paragraph. The longer it is, the fewer the sentences will be, and vice versa.
How many paragraphs are 10 pages double-spaced?
When calculating this, it is assumed that a double-spaced page should contain 3 paragraphs. Therefore, if there are 10 pages, there will be a total of 30 paragraphs in the paper.
How many sentences is a paragraph in college?
A college-level paragraph should contain adequate details to support individual claims. As such, it should contain more, well-constructed sentences. When this is considered, such a paragraph should have a minimum of 5 sentences to adequately discuss and support a claim.
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