Consequently, by the late 1950s, programmers could solve problems You dont need to know all the rules of grammar to break them. For example, the key message in the following sentence is that Describing complicated processes or sequences of events. COMPLEX: Lady Fuchsia sulked and ate a pear, which was rotten. contains a dependent clause (the second half refers to the pear in the first half, it wouldnt work on its own). You might be wondering; do I think all long sentences are bad? Could be easily rewritten to say the same thing with fewer words: In fact, every nurse worked from 3 am to midnight. Remember the tip earlier to write like youre talking to a mate? Yes, you should take Tolkien, Dickens and especially Lovecraft, and burn them in a big bin. Replacing causes the triggering of with the much shorter verb triggers Python is an interpreted language; the sentence can survive without When in doubt, an old copywriter tip is to KISS. Changing the sentence from passive voice to active voice enhances the On the grounds that; as a result of; due to the fact that; in light of the fact that;by virtue of the fact that, In order to; in an effort to; as a means to; for the purpose of, In connection with; concerning the matter of; with reference to; in regards to About, At this point in time; at the present time; at present, In the event that; in the event of; assuming that; provided that, A greater degree of; a greater proportion of. The following, for instance: Making a sentence too long can be confusing because it is easy to lose track of what was said at the beginning, since they do not give the reader enough time to process what they are reading and by the end of the sentence you might have forgotten where it started! Avoid redundant or overused phrases. Of course not. TextCortex AI The most advanced and specific copy writing AI to solve your marketing content needs. Your email address will not be published. For example, consider the following sentence: This design document provides a detailed description of Project Frambus. dividing the offending subordinate clause(s) into separate sentences. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); You can also upload a document to get an instant quote. Try to find different ways to say the same thing - this will make your sentences much more interesting for the reader.
Just be careful of creating sentence fragments that make no sense. And trust me you dont want to awake negative feelings in your readers, because theyll never match you with something good in the future.
bulleted list: To alter the usual flow of a loop, call one of the following statements: Refactor the following sentences into something shorter and clearer. GrammarlyThe old faithful, Grammarly flags spelling, grammar and more. For example, the passive sentence: The hypothesis was supported by the results. In bash, use the if, then, and fi statements to implement a But every time you find yourself writing one, ask yourself WHY it needs to be that long. For example, writing has the ability to rather than can, or by reason of the fact of rather than because. invented by the Polish logician Jan ukasiewicz. Within active voice, the subject performs an action. A paraphrasing tool will help you to convert the sentence into an easier and clear sentence. example, consider the following sentence: Python is an interpreted programming language, which was invented in 1991. In addition, passive voice sentences are often longer than their active equivalents because they require additional words to convey meaning. But, Yet and even And can all start a new sentence and add punch. which means that the language They have their purpose. Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. The best writing cuts like a knife and makes every word count. It only makes your writing difficult to understand. The highlighted If your sentences are too long, replacing these phrases with a single word will help reduce your word count. Words should be weighed, not counted. Yiddish proverb. Of course, they have their place in varying sentence length (rhythm). 5 Wordle Alternatives for Word Game Lovers. essential subordinate clause that the sentence can't live without. Good writing pleases both human beings and our computer overlords. To make your work engaging, the best thing to do is vary sentence length. For example, She walked quickly down the street can be changed to She hurried down the street without changing its meaning at all. Wordy phrases where one word will do Somehow an idea has taken hold in academic writing that we need to sound smart and that one way to do this is to use long-winded phrases rather than one word. If Yoast, Grammarly, ProWritingAid, or even Word spell check are used a lot for your writing, then squiggles will have been received for this. describes (or the verb details), so the resulting sentence could become: This design document describes Project Frambus. Long sentences are good for: On the other hand, short sentences are good for: So, how to shorten a sentence by breaking it into the logical parts? Copyright 2018 MD Writing & Editing All Rights Reserved. Bash is a modern shell scripting language. Can. word because and does not contain a comma: When editing, scrutinize subordinate clauses. SIMPLE: Lady Fuchsia sulked. contains a single clause (a subject and a verb). pretty much interchangeable. Whenever you can avoid it and avoid using synonyms for words if it creates redundancy or repetition (e.g., use of both in order to and so as to in the same sentence). The research, published in the journal Public Library of Science ONE, found that people who use short words score higher in tests of verbal intelligence than those who use long ones. The number of words you use does not make you look intelligent. Just as statements You can usually tell whether the sentence feels fine without it. the conjunction or, so let's convert that long sentence to the following In short, my long overcomplex sentences either bored or confused readers. When you repeat certain words many times in a sentence or paragraph, it may seem like a good idea at first glance. linear algebra. However, after reading it twice you start wondering why you haven't used any synonyms or other ways to express it differently. Inevitably though, alert readers Extra lines of code introduce additional points of failure. idea or do they branch off into a separate idea? simple conditional branching block in which the if statement Some tips on how to shorten your sentences are: These words can help eliminate unnecessary commas and make your writing flow better. If you found this article helpful, sign up to my email newsletter to be notified of future articles and webinars to help you with your academic writing. As you write and revise, do your best to make sure that your sentences aren't too short or choppy. What to do When You Need to Rewrite Your Rewrite, The Cake Analogy: Why You Should Never Show Your First Draft to Anyone, What Ive Learnt so Far Rewriting my Novel, How to Write Readable, Engaging Blog Posts Every Time - Kristina Proffitt Creative. Remember the mail you send out today which took just too long to formulate again? It would make sense to break it down into three shorter sentences: Subscribe to our newsletter and get writing tips from our editors straight to your inbox. Irvine rocks because he can do concise, but he can also write Spuds chapters in Trainspotting. It's a simple rule: if you can replace 'that' with 'who', you should use 'who'. See which version is best. The and is a coordinating conjunction, linking the ideas together. Software engineers generally try to minimize the number of lines of code in an If you have a long, complex sentence that will lose meaning if you break it upand from my brush with legal writing, there are a lot of thesestick in some commas and dashes. No, of course not. Unless youre going rogue, sentences should contain a clause, which is a single and complete idea. Below are some examples of Simple, Compound, Complex and Complex Compound sentences. (It does not matter if we remove who lives next door because it just adds information about where she lives.). the following sentence: An input value greater than 100 causes the triggering of logging. This will make your content much easier to read, and readers will stay longer on your blog. Negative constructions are sentences that have a negative word or phrase in front of the subject. Enter your details in the form below to get access to my 7-step guide to academic writing. but only radiocarbon dating can You can usually identify subordinate clauses by the words that introduce them. Also, ask whether you need to say a thing was really or very something. All of these things are perfectly normal when were writing our drafts. While some may seem obvious, others are not as clear. They don't help clarify the meaning of the sentence, but instead, just repeat what has already been said. Your email address will not be published. Want more examples of long sentences in literature? Most sentences will fall into one of these categories. 2 0 obj A clear, concise, and precise sentence is always easier to understand than a complicated, lengthy one. I don't want to say that Fortran is old, but only radiocarbon dating can removing or reducing them. You might even end up sounding clearer. Shorter documentation is typically easier to maintain than longer When you see the conjunction or in a long sentence, consider refactoring ), The girl who lives next door is my friend. Having every sentence super short makes writing sound choppy. And it bores and drives away your readers. Its therefore a good idea to check your sentences for unnecessary words, as cutting these out will make a long sentences shorter. Remember, different sentence lengths serve different purposes in your writing. endobj If you can say it out loud and it still makes sense, youre fine. As I grew older and more pretentious, my sentences grew in length. To get started with the Frambus app, you must first find the app at a relies on Polish prefix notation. What's the evaluates an expression, the then statement introduces a block of The non-defining relative clause can be removed without altering the meaning of the sentence. The phrase twelve midnight, for instance, means exactly the same thing as midnight, so the twelve is redundant. YoastUse WordPress? When I need to go over 20-25 words, I usually Frankenstein my long sentence together using dashes; I find semi-colons difficult and hate using them. No. For details, see the Google Developers Site Policies. If so, then you know how hard it can be to get your point across clearly. Inside many long technical sentences is a list yearning to break free. IBM introduced Fortran in 1957. Perhaps the simplest way to make your writing more succinct is to shorten your sentences. Say the sentence out loud and feel for natural breaks. Sometimes, long sentences are easier to follow if broken down into two or more statements. With practice, you'll spot the extra words and feel enormous happiness in For example, see if you can spot the unnecessary words in KornShell was invented by David Korn in 1983, then a computer scientist at Use dashes to give a sudden break or interruption in the sentence flow. In the following sentences, there are no defining relative clauses: The book that was on sale yesterday was very interesting. I still keep this in mind, but often end up nudging 25+ words. use that. In spite of the fact that Arnold writes buggy code, he writes error-free Create content in every possible textbox you need. It makes your writing clear and bold.. Designed by Elegant Themes | Powered by WordPress, 7 and 1/2 Lesser-Known Mistakes Indie Authors Make. An easy way to make sentences clearer and better is to just install Grammarly or ProWritingAid. Amaze your reader with the wide variety of sentence lengths you can produce. Lisp is a programming language that relies on Polish prefix In passive voice, the subject receives an action. 3 0 obj the Bourne Shell (which it was backwards compatible with), which was COMPOUND: Lady Fuchsia sulked and ate a pear. contains two clauses, because Fuchsia is doing two things. Do the subordinate clauses in a sentence extend the single Wet pants. And In my opinion is for passive aggressive emails, not your thriller.