Correct use of \paragraph titles?

Question

How should I use \paragraph? I mean, If I want to put "Characteristics", should I put \paragraph{Characteristics} or \paragraph{Characteristics:}. Or is it up to me which one to use?

score 31 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 28 '10 at 06:06

31

I think a colon would look bad, but a period looks good. Not having it can look strange since you end up with something like

Title Another word starting with a capital letter.

as opposed to

Title. The start of a thought.

The "Title Another" looks odd to me.

answered Oct 28 '10 at 06:06

TH.

62,639

Yes. Without the period, the result doesn't look good. – Tomas Nov 01 '10 at 04:49
Forgot to do that. ;) – Tomas Nov 01 '10 at 21:02
3

Why LaTeX doesn't add a point automatically? Is there a way to do so? – lumbric Apr 23 '12 at 17:32
Actually it wasn't too difficult to solve this on my own. I added an answer. – lumbric Apr 30 '12 at 12:43
There's also the option to change the appearance of the paragraph in the ToC: \paragraph[Characteristics]{Characteristics.}. This way the . doesn't show up in the ToC (if set up to show paragraphs). – v01pe Nov 10 '20 at 11:09

lockstep · Answer 2 · 2011-11-11T18:56:30.980

16

In the standard classes, a horizontal space of 1em will separate the paragraph title and the following text; therefore there's no need for ending the title with a colon. Of course, this is no "hard-and-fast"-rule - a colon would be more out of place at the end of a section title (which is by default vertically separated from the following text).

EDIT: In response to TH.'s answer: I'll endorse a period at the end of a paragraph title provided that the space after it is reduced to a normal word space. A period plus a gap of 1em looks like overkill to me (but then, I'm a fan of \frenchspacing.)

edited Nov 11 '11 at 18:56

answered Oct 27 '10 at 22:15

lockstep

250,273

What about points (.)? Should I put them in titles or not? – Tomas Oct 27 '10 at 22:46
1

IMO, no - I don't know good examples of titles that end with a point. – lockstep Oct 27 '10 at 22:48
I meant paragraph titles. TH's answer would answer that. – Tomas Nov 01 '10 at 04:50

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 30 '12 at 12:43

Automatically place a period at the end of paragraph titles

I just solved my own question (from the comment). Put this into the preamble:

\let\originalparagraph\paragraph
\renewcommand{\paragraph}[2][.]{\originalparagraph{#2#1}}

If you don't want a period, you can use something like \paragraph[?]{Title}, then a '?' will be placed at the end instead of a period.

Warning: I'm not sure if this is an ugly soliton (there might be problems with the TOC for example). Edits of this answer are welcome... :)

Minimal example

\documentclass{scrbook}

    \let\originalparagraph\paragraph
    \renewcommand{\paragraph}[2][.]{\originalparagraph{#2#1}}

\begin{document}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam auctor vulputate massa. Cras eu arcu non nisl tempor rhoncus. Sed tortor ipsum, molestie non gravida ut, tempor quis lacus. Sed quis nisi sit amet nibh elementum bibendum quis ut erat. 

\paragraph{Lorem}
Nulla facilisi. Cras et diam massa. Suspendisse congue leo at nunc ultrices cursus. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Donec sed scelerisque odio. Morbi ac neque erat, id porta turpis. Donec mollis velit ac turpis blandit blan.

\paragraph[?]{Ipsum}
Nunc placerat libero vel mauris dignissim quis porttitor felis accumsan. Sed condimentum iaculis ultricies. Vestibulum accumsan volutpat mi ac ultricies. Mauris luctus luctus facilisis.


\end{document}

Output of minimal example

There will certainly be problems with the ToC. Would rather do \newcommand{Paragraph}{\paragraph{#1}} or similar. — yannisl, Apr 30 '12 at 12:50
I don't include paragraphs in the ToC, but I didn't want to change all \paragraph{} commands in my document. This could be done easily with search & replace, but I'm using LyX and therefore it is more comfortable not to change anything. But I'd be curious, if you expect also other problems (except the ToC). — lumbric, Apr 30 '12 at 14:52
If is for your own document alone is ok as the other matter is one of convention. If I was reviewing your text I would be puzzled over the paragraph[?]. The older you might also get puzzled one day as to what your younger you did! — yannisl, Apr 30 '12 at 18:02
This is very useful IMHO. As \paragraph has a * variant and an optional [toctitle] you can also change the way it shows (or doesn't show) in the ToC. Use \renewcommand{\paragraph}[2][.]{\originalparagraph*{#2#1}} if you don't want the paragraph to show in the ToC at all, or \renewcommand{\paragraph}[2][.]{\originalparagraph[#2]{#2#1}} if you want it to show in the ToC, but without the dot. — v01pe, Nov 10 '20 at 10:55

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 16 '22 at 16:58

0

Regarding periods after titles: I believe the standard is: Unless a title is a complete declarative sentence, it should not be followed by a period. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_stop

answered Jan 16 '22 at 16:58

Lorne

1

This may very well be subject to a house style. For example, a theorem heading can be considered a title, but it is almost always followed by a period, "Theorem 5.", especially when the following text is run in. – barbara beeton Jan 16 '22 at 17:07

Correct use of \paragraph titles?

4 Answers4

Automatically place a period at the end of paragraph titles

Minimal example

Linked