ESSAYS—literary analyses, political proposals, well-read debates, everyday life observations or reminiscences of writers—should only be short. Or else, they are already deemed as out of control.
It’s of the essence to say that sentence length is rudimentary when it comes to writing essays. Why express something in 30 words, when it can be written in just 10 words? Good essay writers actually have the flair to squeeze the essays they scribble to just a few number of words—and that’s already a mixture of short and long sentences.
Not yet convinced of keeping essays under control? Think about these essay writing truths:
- An essay that comprises of lengthy sentences can wear out the eyes.
- If every sentence of an essay has more than 25 words, the reader’s brain might not get the breather he needs to sort out new information.
- A writer who cannot stay away from writing kilometric essays should vary the length of his sentences so his work won’t appear uninteresting.
- Main ideas for essays can be summed up to just one sentence.
- Some readers tend to absorb every detail in an essay into smaller chunks to fully understand it.
- By the time a reader reads the conclusion of any lengthy essay, he might have forgotten already its introduction.
- Further words in an essay mean harder comprehension.
- A long sentence can be divided into two shorter sentences.
In shorter, err, other words, newbie writers should learn how to keep their essays under control by limiting a sentence’s number of words from 15 to 20. It will help them come up with lucid yet very readable pieces of writing.
