Since the ins
and del
elements do not
affect paragraphing, it is possible,
in some cases where paragraphs are implied (without explicit p
elements), for an ins
or del
element to
span both an entire paragraph or other non-phrasing
content elements and part of another paragraph. For
example:
<section> <ins> <p> This is a paragraph that was inserted. </p> This is another paragraph whose first sentence was inserted at the same time as the paragraph above. </ins> This is a second sentence, which was there all along. </section>
By only wrapping some paragraphs in p
elements, one
can even get the end of one paragraph, a whole second paragraph,
and the start of a third paragraph to be covered by the same
ins
or del
element (though this is very
confusing, and not considered good practice):
<section> This is the first paragraph. <ins>This sentence was inserted. <p>This second paragraph was inserted.</p> This sentence was inserted too.</ins> This is the third paragraph in this example. <!-- (don't do this) --> </section>
However, due to the way implied
paragraphs are defined, it is not possible to mark up the
end of one paragraph and the start of the very next one using the
same ins
or del
element. You instead have
to use one (or two) p
element(s) and two
ins
or del
elements, as for example:
<section> <p>This is the first paragraph. <del>This sentence was deleted.</del></p> <p><del>This sentence was deleted too.</del> That sentence needed a separate <del> element.</p> </section>
Partly because of the confusion described above, authors are
strongly encouraged to always mark up all paragraphs with the
p
element, instead of having ins
or
del
elements that cross implied
paragraphs boundaries.