I have two functions that affect `the_excerpt`:

    // Grab First Paragraph Of Text And Ignore Images For Excerpt
    	function awesome_excerpt($text, $raw_excerpt) {
    	    if( ! $raw_excerpt ) {
    	        $content = apply_filters( 'the_content', get_the_content() );
    	        $text = substr( $content, 0, strpos( $content, '</p>' ) + 4 );
    	    }
    	    $text = preg_replace("/<img[^>]+\>/i", "", $text); 
    	    return $text;
    	}
    	add_filter( 'wp_trim_excerpt', 'awesome_excerpt', 10, 2 );

    function excerpt($limit) {
            $excerpt = explode(' ', get_the_excerpt(), $limit);
            if (count($excerpt)>=$limit) {
                array_pop($excerpt);
                $excerpt = implode(" ",$excerpt).'...';
              } else {
                $excerpt = implode(" ",$excerpt);
              } 
            $excerpt = preg_replace('`\[[^\]]*\]`','',$excerpt);
            return $excerpt;
        }

Now, on my `index.php`, those posts show the first paragraph of the post. I am also trying to show the excerpt when you click into a posts in an area called Related Posts. In Related Posts I want it to show a limit of x characters.

On the `index.php` I am leaving it as `the_excerpt`, but on my Related Posts I'm calling it with <?php echo excerpt(25);?>. This is what the markup looks like when I'm calling it for the Related Posts like:

    <div class="recent-meta-excerpt">
       <?php echo excerpt(25);?>
       <a class="read-more" href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>">Read More <i class="fa fa-long-arrow-right"></i></a>
    </div>

It's outputting like this:

     <div class="recent-meta-excerpt">
           <p>It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout....
           <a class="read-more" href="http://www.stepyouraimup.com/blog/no-featured-image/">Read More <i class="fa fa-long-arrow-right"></i></a>
           </p>
        </div>

But I don't want the `<a>` inside. When I'm calling `the_excerpt` on the Related Posts the `<a>` it's inside of the `<p>`. On the main posts in index.php it's wrapping the first paragraph from the post into a `<p>`, this is correct. I would like to do the same for the excerpt on Related Posts, but it shouldn't have the `<a>` inside of it. If it's outside of the call why is it being included inside?

If you'd like a live example click [here][1] to view my blog and click a post to see the Related Posts.


  [1]: http://www.stepyouraimup.com/blog/