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Language and punctuation
Crafting paragraphs
A paragraph should contain one unit of thought or action, or main point, and should be typically three to eight sentences in length. All of the sentences in a paragraph should relate to its main point.

Introduction
Information types and topics
Topics are the building blocks of modular documents, and organising topics by semantic information types is one of the architectural features of DITA.
DITA map files
Syntax and mark-up
Language and punctuation
- Avoiding writing for output
  Do not include formatting information in your DITA content topics.
- Stem sentences, glue text, and other transitional information
  Transitional information, such as stem sentences, is largely redundant in DITA's minimalist, topic-based, semantic mark-up architecture. The role of transitional information in contextualising the content has been eliminated through the use of smaller chunk sizes, meaningful titles, information typing, structure, and demarcation labels automatically-generated in the output.
- Punctuation in lists
  Ordered and unordered list items should have no terminating punctuation marks, such as commas, semicolons, and full stops, except when all items in a list are complete sentences. This approach maximises re-usability.
- Titles and headings
  Titles are used in a number of mark-up structures in DITA. Titles are a mix of content and metadata. The mark-up in titles should be kept as simple as possible, and workarounds to achieve specific formatting outcomes should not be used.
- Crafting paragraphs
  A paragraph should contain one unit of thought or action, or main point, and should be typically three to eight sentences in length. All of the sentences in a paragraph should relate to its main point.
- Different languages
  The xml:lang attribute stores the human language of the content, and can be applied to any DITA element.
- Quotation marks
  Quotation marks should not be included in DITA content. The marks should be added, if required, during the publishing process.
Graphics and figures
Cross-referencing
Cross-references are a means of binding individual topics into a coherent and navigable document.
Content re-use
Metadata, conditional processing, and indexing
The DITA documentation process
DITA authoring concepts
Moving from style-based authoring to a structured authoring methodology such as DITA requires a radically different approach to writing.

Crafting paragraphs

A paragraph should contain one unit of thought or action, or main point, and should be typically three to eight sentences in length. All of the sentences in a paragraph should relate to its main point.

A paragraph should start with a topic sentence. A topic sentence establishes the paragraph's main idea, and therefore discloses the subject of the paragraph to the reader. This structure help scanning readers move quickly through a text.

The sentences that follow should support the topic sentence by elaborating on the main point. Paragraphs should be three to eight sentences in length.

To avoid closing off opportunities for re-using paragraphs in different contexts, do not use cohesive or transitional devices at the end of a paragraph that tie it to the next paragraph.