4 ways to write short sentences

Commence with a conjunction, break it with bullets, more

I know, I know. Your third-grade teacher, Mrs. Webb, told you never to start a sentence with a conjunction.

4 ways to write short sentences — **Commence with a conjunction** Go ahead: Start your sentence with *And.* It will make your sentences shorter — and your third-grade teacher will never know. *Image from iStock.*

News flash: These days, Mrs. Webb is probably never going to read your copy.

So go ahead: Move those linking words — “and,” “or,” “also,” “but,” “so,” “then” and “plus” — to the fronts of your sentences.

When you start with a conjunction, you break long sentences into short ones and move your copy along more briskly.

Here are 3 other ways to write short sentences:

1. Search and destroy conjunctions.

Sentences too long? Use Microsoft Word’s Find function to search for conjunctions.

**Find conjunctions** Microsoft Word’s *Find* function will help you identify conjunctions, including the 26 in this article.

They include:

And
Or
Also
But
So
Then
Plus

When one of my writing coachees tried this trick, she found 23 “ands” in a 500-word article.

When you find them, see whether you can replace them with a period. Or, instead of replacing them, commence with a conjunction.

2. Break it with bullets.

If you have a series of three or more items, break them out of the sentence into a bulleted or numbered list. Readers perceive bullets as each being separate sentences and paragraphs.

This is especially important online, where readers skim even more than they do in print. In one test, usability expert Jakob Nielsen made a web page 47% more usable by breaking copy up and lifting ideas off the page.

Learn more about writing lists.

3. Don’t fix fragments.

Mrs. Webb, your 3rd-grade teacher, probably also counseled you to avoid sentence fragments.

Mrs. Webb was wrong. Sentence fragments can help you:

Create drama
Make a transition
Emphasize an important idea
Change the pace of your piece
Make your copy sound conversational
And, of course, make sentences shorter

Write fragments like Paul Harding.

Here’s how it works, in a passage from Paul Harding’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Tinkers:

He found that bankers paid well to keep their balky heirlooms telling time. He could replace the worn tooth on a strike wheel by hand. Lay the clock facedown. Unscrew the screws; maybe just pull them from the cedar or walnut case, the threads long since turned to wood dust dusted from mantels. Lift off the back of the clock like the lid of a treasure chest. Bring the long-armed jeweler’s lamp closer, to just over your shoulder. Examine the dark brass. See the pinions gummed up with dirt and oil. Look at the blue and green and purple ripples of metal hammered, bent, torched. Poke your finger into the clock; fiddle the escape wheel (every part perfectly named-escape: the end of the machine, the place where the energy leaks out, breaks free, beats time). Stick your nose closer; the metal smells tannic. Read the names etched onto the works: Ezra Bloxham-1794; Geo. E. Tiggs-1832; Thos. Flatchbart-1912. Lift the darkened works from the case. Lower them into ammonia. Lift them out, nose burning, eyes watering, and see them shine and star through your tears. File the teeth. Punch the bushings. Load the springs. Fix the clock. Add your name.

Used strategically, fragments can make your copy tighter and more interesting.

Period.

Cut Through the Clutter
Want more tips and techniques for measurably improving readability?

If so, bring Ann in to present Write for Readability — a one- to two-day clear-writing workshop — to your team.
There, you’ll use a cool (free!) tool to get 27 text statistics on your piece — from the Fog Index to the Flesch Kincaid Grade Level.
Book in-house workshop.