Short or long sentences?

Phoenix98 · Post by **Phoenix98** » 30 Mar 2013, 00:52

Let me illustrate. One of the most important books written in the last 250 years is The Federalist Papers. It was written to a public which, by comparison to today's, was highly intelligent, not having been dumbed down by public education and the media. It was written by men possessed of high classical, historical, and social education.

It was written for the purpose of persuasion--to persuade the public to look with favor upon the newly written American Constitution. It has, however, received an afterlife, in that it has become the standard text for primary study of the document (not to be confused with secondary, of which there are numerous).

The Federalist Papers is replete with lengthy sentences, and thus serves, in my opinion, as an excellent example of their value, even necessity, when writing a book or a document of importance.

Case in point, from the fifty-fourth installment:

Might not some surprise also be expressed, that those who reproach the Southern States with the barbarous policy of considering as property a part of their human brethren, should themselves contend, that the government to which all the States are to be parties, ought to consider this unfortunate race more completely in the unnatural light of property, than the very laws of which they complain?

Had this extremely important sentence been written in a series of short ones, it would have been something like this: Some of the States in our Confederacy have a barbaric policy. It is a policy regarding people of a race other than the majority. Namely, that policy consists of considering some people as fit to be property. For this reason, people of that race are unfortunate. Something about this is quite surprising. By that I mean that those who besmirch this barbaric policy also become very confused about it. They actually end up wanting to use population numbers from the slaves to their own advantage when numbering legislative districts. Ownership of fellow humans is unnatural, but not even those who agree are consistent in principle.

At least four things happened in switching to short sentences. 1) Brevity is no longer the soul of wit, as sixty-five words became one hundred four. 2) The reader is insulted, as there is an underlying insinuation that he is not intelligent enough to understand sentence structure and punctuation. 3) Argument is stifled, because progression of thought becomes mangled in the overall context of paragraph structure. 4) The writer became lazy, as lengthy sentences, if properly constructed, require more work.

To reiterate what I said in an earlier post, long sentences have more value in important writings. The Federalist Papers well qualify. Their authorship played a key role in bringing about the adoption of the founding document of the nation that has the longest running government of all the nations on the earth. I would suggest that the long sentence played a role in that success.

Gillshutt · Post by **Gillshutt** » 01 Apr 2013, 05:17

I would say it depends on the type of book and your audience. Books to be read in a day should have short sentences, as should ones for children or YA. If you are writing something profound and you want people to sit and think then you can put in as long a sentence as you want as long as you realise that many people will have to read it over a few times which ruins the flow and puts some people off.

-- 01 Apr 2013, 06:20 --

The sentence quoted above, about the Southern States, is the sort of sentence I write when I'm in full flow and get told off by my editor for; my work get cut into bite sized pieces for the masses.

Fran · Post by **Fran** » 01 Apr 2013, 05:46

IMO it's the skill of the author and the quality of the writing that matter, not the length of the sentences. However, I would suggest that, unless you are very skilled in the use of grammar and syntax, it is safer to stick with short sentences.
Short, sharp sentences move a story forward at a faster pace and are therefore popular in the modern thriller genre. Long, wordy sentences slow down the story and make for more intense reading study. I guess you could say short sentences suit the superficial, quick hit reader and longer sentences suit the reader seeking a more intense, indepth experience with a book. One is neither better or worse, just different.

Phoenix98 · Post by **Phoenix98** » 01 Apr 2013, 08:01

StephenKingman wrote:...I like short sentences with long meanings, its actually a very difficult thing to do, compress a lot of words and a loaded meaning into a few words rather than ramble on with no destination....

Excellent point.

"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times" is an example. Another might be Billy Joel's use of what I call "flash lyrics" in We Didn't Start the Fire.

In either case, however, it is presupposed that the readers already knew something of the content of what the writer was saying. For that reason, the tool can't always be used.

Xorplon · Post by **Xorplon** » 01 Apr 2013, 14:03

I find some books with short sentences work if they articulate the idea in a effective manner.

Some dialogue or simply setting the story need to have longer sentences because these things need to have more depth to them.

Phoenix98 · Post by **Phoenix98** » 02 Apr 2013, 22:32

J_L_MacLaren wrote:....I'm curious as to what is a short sentence? What is long? What would be too short or too long?
There are times when a single simple sentence, subject and verb, can make a powerful impact.

Shortest sentence in the English Bible? "Jesus wept."

kiatezua · Post by **kiatezua** » 03 Apr 2013, 02:18

I agree with the opinion of that short sentences are better, but it depends on the context. However the great issue seems for me to be clarity, not really length.

sauerteig · Post by **sauerteig** » 03 Apr 2013, 02:55

Shorter and longer sentence is not fact for writing...cause its depended on of you,,,,,

Caseydiviolette · Post by **Caseydiviolette** » 14 Apr 2013, 23:01

Personally, I get bored if all sentences have the same rhythm of shortness. Conversely, I hate to constantly wait for the end of a sentence, becoming lost in an author's thoughts. I prefer a healthy mix of rhythm to the books I read. Otherwise it reads like a how-to blog of sorts.

Williamz · Post by **Williamz** » 15 Apr 2013, 01:25

The easiest way to make sentences longer is by using conjunctions, the most common of which are coordinating conjunctions. Conjunctions can be used to connect independent clauses, dependent clauses, and/or other phrases together. Using them correctly is an easy way to combine two or three shorter sentences into one longer one.

hamsunite · Post by **hamsunite** » 18 Apr 2013, 02:37

I need both short and long sentences. But that's just me-----I like the pauses in between and the continuous flow of words after a pause.

lady_charlie · Post by **lady_charlie** » 18 Apr 2013, 19:27

Short sentences can be so powerful.
Jesus wept.
pow, job done.

There is a joke about the world's shortest question ?
and the world's shortest answer !

I did a search for:
The Longest Sentence in Literature and came up with this:

Many people attribute the longest sentence in literature to Victor Hugo. The claim is that a sentence in Les Miserables, 823 words long, earns that title.

The source most often given for this, if a source is given, is Timothy Fullerton's Triviata: A Compendium of Useless Information, published in 1975.

Unfortunately, Fullerton was in error. At best, it is the longest sentence in French literature, though I can't confirm that.* Traditionally, the longest sentence in English Literature has been said to be a sentence in Ullyses by James Joyce, which clocks in at 4,391 words. Past editions of The Guinness Book of World Records have listed this record.

However, Joyce's record has recently been surpassed. Jonathan Coe's The Rotters Club, published in 2001, contains a sentence with 13,955 words. I believe he currently holds the record in "English Literature."

However hold on to your seats...

There is also, apparently, a Polish novel, Gates of Paradise, with a 40,000 word sentence. I have been unable so far to find absolute confirmation on an author. Bramy Raju, written by Jerzy Andrzejewski, and published in 1960, translates as Gates of Paradise, but it has been described as a novella. And while there is no absolute definition of that term, novellas are usually shorter than 40,000 words.

Finally, there is a Czech novel that consists of one long sentence -- Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age by Bohumil Hrabal. It is this novel that Coe has said inspired his 13,955 word sentence. Hrabal's 'novel sentence' is 128 pages long, though I have been unable to find an exact word count. It most likely takes the award for longest sentence. Even if it doesn't, it dwarfs Hugo's significantly.

-- John Newmark - Nov, 2003

skyman2610 · Post by **skyman2610** » 19 Apr 2013, 11:00

yes, a short sentense but enough the meaning will make your sentense better!

lady_charlie · Post by **lady_charlie** » 02 May 2013, 20:08

I just noticed a post about the shortest story:
For Sale: Baby shoes Never worn

I almost cried and then I remembered we had to get rid of some shoes that she never wore because she just outgrew them too fast.

so maybe stories need to be a little longer to be clear?