Even the most hopeless writers among us – those who ignore almost every punctuation device – will nonetheless speak in sentences. Sentences are used to make statements, to ask questions, to demand action and express feelings – but what exactly are the rules?
It’s reasonable to say a sentence should express a single idea and be complete. (After all, there’s little more annoying than an unfinished
However, with the help of some clever punctuation, sentence length can be quite elastic – as this example shows.
See how the cunning commas and perfectly placed dash allowed us to extend the length of that sentence?
I’m often asked how long a sentence should be. The usual answer is neither too long nor too short. While short sentences are generally more understood than long, complex ones, an endless succession of short, disjointed sentences can be intensely irritating to the reader. It all boils down to judgement.
Here’s a good example of how not to write a sentence:
A person shall be treated as suffering from physical disablement such that he is either unable to walk or virtually unable to walk with a prosthesis or an artificial aid which he habitually wears or uses or if he would not be unable or virtually unable to walk if he habitually wore or used a prosthesis or an artificial aid which is suitable in his case.
Defies understanding, doesn’t it. Yet all the writer is attempting (and failing miserably) to say can be expressed clearly in one simple sentence:
Persons are regarded as physically disabled if they always need an artificial aid to walk.
Like most things, it’s easy when you know how. If you’d like some help writing clear, convincing copy please get in touch!
