Bottom-of-Page Paragraph and the Orphan Heading
The machine is loaded with paper ruled for 30 lines. The centre's format rules require a 1-inch top margin and a 1-inch bottom margin. On this machine that means the first typed line is line 3 and the last usable line is line 27. You have typed down to line 26. The next paragraph is four lines long and begins with the heading 'Conclusion'. The rules also say: 'Do not split a paragraph of fewer than five lines across a page, and do not type a heading as the last line on a page.' You have 4 minutes left and about 45 words of the passage remain. Rolling to a new page and realigning the paper takes about 30 seconds. If you continue on the same page, you can type the heading on line 27, but the rest of the paragraph would fall into the bottom margin. If you break, the whole paragraph fits on the new page.
1. What should you do with the 'Conclusion' paragraph, and why? Show the line arithmetic.
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The last usable line is line 27, and you have already typed line 26. That leaves exactly one usable line (line 27) before the bottom margin. The paragraph is four lines long and starts with a heading. If you continue, line 27 would contain the heading Conclusion, and the remaining three lines would have to go below line 27 - into the bottom margin. That violates two rules at once: the heading would be the last line on the page, and the four-line paragraph would be split across the page break.
Breaking to a new page costs about 30 seconds, leaving roughly 3.5 minutes. The remaining passage is about 45 words; even at a modest 20 words per minute, that is about 2.25 minutes of typing, so you have enough time. The whole four-line paragraph then fits on the new page, the bottom margin is preserved, and the heading is not orphaned. The correct decision is to roll to a new page and realign. The 30-second cost is smaller than the format penalty and the untidy split that would result from continuing.
2. Suppose the paragraph were six lines long instead of four, and there were no heading. Would the rule still require a page break? Explain using the rule wording.
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The rule says: 'Do not split a paragraph of fewer than five lines across a page.' A six-line paragraph is not 'fewer than five lines', so the anti-split rule does not by itself forbid a break. If line 27 is the only usable line left, you could type one line of the six-line paragraph on line 27 and continue with the remaining five lines on the next page. That would be a split, but it would be permitted under the stated rule because the paragraph is not shorter than five lines.
However, the heading changes the first scenario. The separate rule says: 'Do not type a heading as the last line on a page.' With a heading, even a long paragraph cannot start on line 27 because the heading would be orphaned. So the heading rule, not the paragraph-length rule, forces the break in the original case. The lesson is to apply each format rule separately: first check whether the paragraph is short enough to be protected from splitting, then check whether a heading would be left alone at the bottom. Do not merge the two rules into a vague impression that 'paragraphs should not break'.