Essay Writing Sentence Length: Make Your Paper Engaging

writing sentence length

It is a common situation, for writers to make a lot of effort to write sentences of proper length. On one hand, some of them use short sentences. In this case an essay can seem a little choppy. On the other hand, some writers prefer to put long sentences. This option leads to a long-winded, wordy or diffuse essay. A good and experienced writer combines both long and short sentences: some long, some medium, some short ones.  There are some some suggestions for a thoughtful varying of sentence length.

Let’s start with the short sentences. When you need to fill them, the easiest way is to use conjunctions. The most typical are the coordinating ones. These parts of speech are used to link dependent and independent clauses, and other phrases as well. Using them properly you can easily combine two or three short sentences into a longer one. For example:

A large number of short sentences can ruin a work. It makes the essay seem choppy. The work may appear like it is under college level.

In this example the writing doesn’t flow well. Now let’s improve it by combining some of the sentences together:

A large number of short sentences can ruin a work, for it makes the essay seem choppy and appear like it is under college level. 

No information is changed in this example, however, it clearly looks better. It shows how short sentences are improved with the aid of coordinating conjunctions.

Another way to link short sentences is to use subordinating conjunctions. Below is the list of common ones: although, after, as, as if, as though, before, because, even if, even though, if, if only, once, now that, rather than, since, that, than, though, until, unless, when, where, whereas, wherever, whether, while, which.

And now let’s talk about improving an essay, which abounds with long sentences. The easiest option is to break some of its sentences up, creating new ones. Here is an example:

Long sentences can also be problematic in writing because, even if they are properly punctuated, they are hard to read as readers often need a pause, and writers must keep this in mind and consider the impact which any essay has on the reader. 

The text is grammatically correct, however, the sentences are too long, that’s why it does not flow well. Now we improve this passage by breaking it up into small sentences:

Long sentences can also be problematic in writing. It’s true even if they are properly punctuated, while they are hard to read, and readers often need a pause. Writers must keep this in mind and consider the impact which any essay has on the reader.

It is very important to keep the length in mind and to incorporate a variety of both long and short sentences, when you work on your paper. If you find, that your paper has areas with several short sentences, try to link some of them. On the other hand, if you have notably long sentences, shorten them by b

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