How Long Should a Sentence Be?
According to a study cited by Ann Wylie, readers comprehend over 90% of what they read when sentences have an average length of 14 words. Comprehension falls to fewer than 10% at 43 words.
Attention is currency in the writing world, and readers don’t have much to spare. The attention span of the average reader is almost the same as that of a goldfish. The most important fact is, that the time the readers spend on your writing is precious for them and for you. They may not have enough patience to deconstruct and comprehend your writing. Easily understandable writing is what the readers want. Longer sentences are one of the hated obstacles to understandable writing.
But firstly, we have to decide how long is a long sentence. But it’s debatable. Sometimes a 15-word sentence may seem longer whereas a 20-word sentence may seem appropriate. It depends on how well the sentence is written. A well-written 22-word long sentence is better than a jumbled 15-word sentence. But writing gurus suggest keeping the sentences on average 12–20 words long.
In fact, it’s very easy to write shorter sentences than longer sentences. We usually use shorter sentences in our daily life. While writing academic papers and formal writing people tend to use longer sentences. Longer sentences somehow make the writing more intimidating and credible. But that does not justify using longer sentences without any care.
On Writing Well by William Zinsser is one of the popular books on writing. The writer’s examples of complicated and long sentences made me feel like I have seen these many times. Here are two of them-
But what makes a sentence longer? This question is very easy to answer. Just thinking for a few minutes you can come up with these few reasons:
- More than one idea in one sentence.
- Redundancy
- Using passive voice
- Unnecessary clauses and phrases that can be expressed in a single word. Like- In conclusion, after careful consideration, we have decided to..
So, next time you write remember these 4 things and try to avoid them. Remember, everybody loves simple things. Complicated writing is something that your readers don’t like.
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