Comments on: Are your sentences the right length?

By: Daphne Gray-Grant

Daphne Gray-Grant — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 21:02:00 +0000

In reply to Fred. Well expressed, Fred!

By: Fred

Fred — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 18:39:00 +0000

In keeping with your statistical approach, we should aim for a mean of about 15 words per sentence with a large standard deviation.

By: Daphne Gray-Grant

Daphne Gray-Grant — Thu, 07 Nov 2013 04:15:00 +0000

In reply to Steve. Dealing with 50 word sentences is like chopping cord wood, don't you think? :-)

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 06 Nov 2013 16:12:00 +0000

Poor Bosworth! I enjoyed both your post and Clare’s that brought me here. I’ve been busy chopping up some 50 word sentences this afternoon, and clarifying some ‘isn’t that just obvious?’ strings of industry-jargon nouns, so it came at a nice time.

By: Daphne Gray-Grant

Daphne Gray-Grant — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 17:16:00 +0000

In reply to Clare Lynch.

Hi Claire,

I’ve just posted the following response on your own website:

You make a good point about abstract vs. concrete language. That’s very important. BUT, here’s the interesting thing: If writers focus on sentence length, they’ll naturally start using more concrete language because you can ALWAYS write shorter sentences that way!

There’s always more than one way to skin a cat!

By: Clare Lynch

Clare Lynch — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 16:13:00 +0000

Sorry, here’s the link: http://www.dorisandbertie.com/goodcopybadcopy/2013/11/05/readability-its-not-just-about-sentence-length/

By: Clare Lynch

Clare Lynch — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 16:12:00 +0000

Hi, Daphne. Thanks for the post. You inspired me to write a response!

By: Vicky

Vicky — Sat, 26 Oct 2013 15:30:00 +0000

In reply to Daphne Gray-Grant.

Yes you’re right – just did it again with the whole post and got 14.84 (I was having trouble scrolling with my new Mac OS!) I see you say smart writers aim for between 14 and 20. Looks like I just got a whole lot smarter – good lesson, thank you! 🙂

By: Daphne Gray-Grant

Daphne Gray-Grant — Sat, 26 Oct 2013 15:03:00 +0000

In reply to Vicky. Hey Vicky, Hmm, 12.87 words seems a little short to me (can't believe I'm writing this!). But I was intrigued to see you'd described checking "the first half" of your blog. One important thing to understand about readability statistics is that the MORE text you give them, the better and more accurate the analysis will be. Message: don't measure half blogs. Wait until you've written the whole thing!

By: Vicky

Vicky — Sat, 26 Oct 2013 03:24:00 +0000

HI Daphne, thanks for another great post. Of course I couldn’t resist checking out the first half of my latest blog post… 12.87 words per sentence – and I do use some very short ones too. But they did mention a few sentences I should improve! 🙂 I love things like this!