How to Use This Tool
Paste an essay with blank lines between paragraphs. You get a length for each one, and a comparison that treats the introduction and conclusion as what they are.
The mistake almost every paragraph tool makes
Take a well-structured five-paragraph essay: a short introduction, three developed body paragraphs, a short conclusion. Average all five and the introduction and conclusion sit below the mean, so a tool that compares everything against one average reports them as too short.
They are not too short. They are doing a different job. An introduction states the position and signals the structure; a conclusion resolves it. Both are supposed to be leaner than a paragraph that has to introduce a claim, support it, and answer an objection. Padding them to match is a recognised way to make an essay worse — it produces the throat-clearing opening that markers read past.
So this tool takes the first and last paragraphs out of the comparison whenever there are four or more paragraphs, and judges the body paragraphs against each other.
Ratio, not spread
The headline number is the longest body paragraph divided by the shortest. A standard deviation would work too, but it moves when the essay gets longer, whereas a ratio does not — and a ratio is what a reader perceives. Roughly:
- Under 2× — balanced. Nothing to do.
- 2× to 3× — noticeable. Usually one paragraph absorbed material that belongs in its own paragraph, or one is underdeveloped.
- Over 3× — the long one is doing several jobs at once. It almost always splits cleanly at a point where the argument turns.
These are rules of thumb about how prose reads, not a marking criterion. No exam board measures paragraph ratios. They exist because “keep your paragraphs balanced” is not actionable without a number.
One-sentence body paragraphs
These get flagged separately, because they are almost always one of two things: a claim that never got its support, or a sentence that belongs at the end of the paragraph above. Both are worth a look. A single-sentence paragraph used deliberately for emphasis is a real technique — but it is a technique for essays that have already earned the reader's attention, and it is a risk in an exam script.
