Welcome to the Grammar Minute, where we’re saving the English language sixty seconds at a time! I’m Lauren Smyth, and in the last episode, we talked about long words. How about long sentences? How long is too long? How many clauses is too many?
A good test is to keep your sentences to a length you can read aloud without having to take a breath. A sentence should only contain a single, coherent thought. If you have two thoughts, they should be broken into two sentences.
Most people, even when they’re reading silently, hear words and sentences aloud in their heads. This means that even when you’re writing for the eye, not the ear, you have to pay attention to how sentences sound. And if your reader can only hear themselves gasping for breath as they try to read your transcontinentally long sentences, they won’t pay much attention to what you’re actually saying. So keep it short.
That’s your Grammar Minute! Visit thegrammarminute.com for more tips and tricks.