第17页 | 300 Days of Better Writing | 阅读 ‧ 电子书库

Day 12: Vary sentence length.

The quality of a sentence is not determined by its length, long or short. Its appropriateness may be.

A series of short sentences makes the writing seem choppy. A series of long sentences makes the writing tedious and boring. Writing a series of similar length sentences will be monotonous. Vary them.

Here are some guidelines.

Use your shortest sentences (2–5 words) to create special emphasis.Use a short sentence to catch the reader’s attention.Short sentences must be used sparsely.Use shorter sentences to slow the reader’s reading pace.Ending a paragraph with a long sentence can reduce the impact of the paragraph.Long sentences must be crafted carefully to be clear.Varied sentence lengths help keep the reader’s attention.