• 3-minute read
• 20th March 2016

Writing Tips: Shortening Sentences

In both education and business, writing succinctly is a valuable skill. One simple way to achieve this is by shortening sentences, as often we use more words than necessary.

As such, trimming the linguistic fat by shortening sentences will help you communicate clearly. Herein, we offer a few handy tips.

Breaking Sentences Down

Longer sentences can often be split into two or more shorter sentences, making them easier to follow. The following, for example:

Long sentences are often problematic even when they make sense since they don’t give the reader enough time to process what they say.

Could be broken down as:

Long sentences are often problematic. Even when they make sense, they don’t give the reader enough time to process what they say.

Rather than one 23-word sentence, we now have two shorter sentences that are a little easier to follow.

Eliminate Redundancies

Redundancies occur when we use unnecessary words or phrases in a sentence. The ‘twelve’ in ‘twelve noon’, for example, is redundant because noon is always twelve o’clock. Likewise, in the sentence:

Advanced planning is absolutely essential when commuting back and forth as part of your regular routine.

The words, ‘advanced’, ‘absolutely’, ‘back and forth’ and ‘routine’ are all redundant. A better formulation would be:

Planning is essential when commuting regularly.

Avoid Padding Words/Phrases

Some phrases simply pad out a sentence. The most problematic in academic writing are things like ‘In my opinion’ or ‘As a matter of fact’, which frame a sentence without telling us anything new.

For example, saying ‘In my opinion, Blake’s poetry has a lot to tell the modern reader’ means exactly the same as just ‘Blake’s poetry has a lot to tell the modern reader’. Anyone reading your essay will know it’s your opinion because you wrote it, so there’s no need to point it out too!

Beware the Passive Voice

The passive voice is a grammatical mode where the active person or thing is de-emphasised or omitted. It is often used to make academic writing sound more objective, but it can also make sentences overly complex.

For example, the passive sentence:

The invasion of Russia by Napoleon’s Grande Armée began in June, 1812.

Could be made simpler by using the active voice:

Napoleon’s Grande Armée invaded Russia in June, 1812.

A Word of Warning

Although shortening long sentences can improve your writing, using nothing but short sentences will make an essay seem choppy and disconnected.

The key to making your writing interesting is to vary sentence length, using shorter sentences when you need to make a forceful point or state something as clearly as possible.