Are Your Sentences Too Long?

In college, one of my grammar professors always ended her quizzes with a sentence combination exercise. “Take these 5 sentences, and make them into one,” she’d say. Students rolled their eyes. Mid-semester, one finally asked, “Why? Nobody writes like that.”

The exercise had no real-life purpose, the professor said. She just wanted to see if we could use subordinate clauses and punctuate the words in a way that made sense.

Today, I sometimes see sentences that rival our professor’s quizzes.

It’s like the writer wants to include every last detail in one perfect sentence. They’re not wrong for wanting to say as much as they can. But there’s often a more effective way to do it. I want to tell them, “Relax. Let the words breathe.”

Shorter sentences can be easier to read, follow, and understand. Putting them in one paragraph still keeps the details together, but in easier chunks for readers’ brains to process.

It’s like a chocolate bar. We can enjoy the whole piece, one square at a time.

That doesn’t mean you need short sentences all the time. Varying sentence length can liven up your writing. And in some cases, like fiction, long sentences can be effective or give insight into a character.

But in business writing, it helps to keep the reader in mind. Are these sentences too much? Can the points be made another way? Shorter sentences could create more impact. Your reader can keep your points in mind without getting bogged down in where the subjects, verbs, and punctuation go.

What do you think is the longest sentence you’ve ever seen? (Or what is your favorite candy bar?)