Sentence Length

Week of January 20, 2013—Syntax Needn’t Be Taxing

Tuesday, January 22— Sentence Length

Short. Long. One word. There ya have it—the primary ways to view sentence

length. Short sentences read faster and keep the pace moving forward. Longer

sentences slow down the action and make the reader be more thoughtful and pay

attention. One word sentences (or even sentences with two or three words) can stop

the action altogether. Short sentences demand attention and can make a strong

emotional impact.

The thoughtful writer uses sentence length to conduct the action of the story and to

dictate the pace of the reader. Consider the opening page of The Fantastic Flying

Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce:

Morris Lessmore loved words.

He loved stories.

He loved books.

His life was a book of his own writing, one orderly page

after another. He would open it every morning and write

 of his joys and sorrows, of all that he knew

and everything that he hoped for.

Did you feel the pace of your reading change sentence by sentence? That’s the

power of sentence length.

The first sentence—a statement of fact—is a short sentence—Morris Lessmore

loved words. We read it a normal pace, maybe even quickly. But then we have the

next two, short sentences. He loved stories. He loved books. We are compelled to

read each of these sentences slowly and pause after each. If you’re like me, you

may even read each sentence word-by-word with slight pauses between the words.

The rhythm stops because of the use of each short sentence. These sentences make

an also make an emotional impact.

Then two longer sentences follow and we read at a more deliberate rate as we try

to soak in all the important details. The author is making us slow down and absorb

information that we need to know before we can go on with the story.

Sentence length dictates pacing—both of the story itself, and how it is read. Allyn

Johnston of Beach Lane Books calls picture books “performance pieces.” They are

meant to be read aloud and performed for the listener. When an author varies

sentence length intentionally, he/she can change the pacing of the story and the

pacing of the reader’s performance. It’s just like a director telling the actors in a play

how to deliver a certain line, where to slow down, or where to speed up. Sentence

length is part of the powerful punch syntax can deliver.