: What should be the ideal length of sentences in a blog post for ease of reading? I have heard many times that you should always keep the sentence length to the minimum as possible, as it
I have heard many times that you should always keep the sentence length to the minimum as possible, as it makes reading easy, fast and more important understandable to readers.
I'm wondering: What should be the ideal length threshold to follow for a sentence while writing a blog post?
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@Kaufman555
Hi Prasad_Joshi and welcome!
You have a lot of good (technical and detailed) answers here so I won't add too much. All I'll say is be careful of being too prescriptive with your writing.
Repeated short sentences can sound staccato. Sentences that are laboriously long can lose the reader's attention and become difficult to untangle. Repeated sentences constructed to be exactly X number of words can sound monotone.
The secret to engaging writing is to mix things up a bit. If you write a long sentence, follow it with a short one to give the reader a moment to catch their breath. If you've had to use a series of long sentences to get a point across, tease out the crucial point and let it stand alone. Large paragraph breaks give the reader time to pause and teased out sentences can add clarity. Like this:
"The secret to engaging writing is to mix things up a bit."
Then read it all aloud and make sure it flows with a kind of musicality. If you can't get the words out of your mouth without stumbling, it's likely the reader will stumble over it, too.
Good luck with your blogs!
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@Caterina108
In general, writing for the web is expected to be shorter, with briefer sentences, paragraphs, and sections.
I have found PlainLanguage.gov's guidelines extremely helpful. (I linked to the "be concise" section.)
I also really like NNGroup's articles about User Experience design (they used to be "useit.com", which made their focus on usability very clear.) www.nngroup.com/topic/writing-web/ is the most relevant category. Some specific articles:
The F-Shaped Scanning Pattern shows how users scan online, especially when they're not sure if they're invested in your material yet.
The Inverted Pyramid - start with your most relevant/important content at the start, instead of leading up to it. an excerpt...
Identify your key points. What piece of information is the key fact you want your readers to know, even if they only read a single paragraph or sentence on the page? What effectively summarizes all the information that will follow?
Rank secondary information. Outline the story details and supporting information, prioritizing the information that is most likely to be of interest to the broadest audience, and moving down the list to the smaller and more nuanced details.
Write well and concisely. The structure only helps readers if the content is strong. Cut unnecessary information. Get to the point quickly. Use straightforward language. Use short paragraphs and bulleted lists.
Frontload all elements of content with important information. The main headline should be descriptive. The story should start with the main point. Each heading or subheading should be descriptive. The first sentence of every paragraph should be the most important. The first words in each sentence should be information-carrying and indicate what content will follow.
Plan Language is for Everyone, Even Experts.
If you think clearly, you will express yourself clearly. Your audience wants easy-to-read content that allows them to get the gist of the message efficiently. No one has ever complained that a text was too easy to understand.
Writing for Lower Literacy Users (which may be 30% of your readers!) Basically, they do NOT scan/skim, but they still want the inverted-pyramid -- most important information first.)
Again, different blogs have different goals and audiences, but on the whole, simpler seems to be better. Still include as much information as is relevant, and vary sentences and everything for stylistic choices and to stay true to your own writing voice. But recognize the audiences may be less patient than you'd wish; simplicity seems to be the current ideal.
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@Moriarity138
Generally, a sentence in writing should be 10 words or less with 7 WoL being your goal. You can have longer sentences, but if you do, they should be used sparingly or with good reason (such as an excerpt of purple prose for your readers). Longer sentences add more information and more information creates more opportunity to be unclear or confusing. As with all things in writing: just be careful how you do it.
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@Connie138
TLDR: The shorter the better.
Long version: Respect people's time. Say what you need to say. Be as concise as possible.
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@Lee1909368
Each sentence must be exactly as long as it need be; never longer.
Sentences establish the rhythm of your writing. Sentence construction -- length, rhythm, variation, and rhyme -- are the tools that align writing and oratorical style.
A blog post is a short experience. You tease ideas. You dip a reader's mind into your logic and hope to bring them back for a fuller reveal.
Writing must be interesting. You must get attention. You must gnarl expectations leaving a twisted discomfort that only more of your ideas can relax. Draw your reader into a conceptual labyrinth, drawn by the promise of a Minotaur-like concept that kills your stagnant processes and eats your quivering misconceptions. Show them that better life waits ahead. Just click.
Readers will follow your link to reveal the greater message.
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@Gretchen741
It depends on your intended audience.
If your audience is literature professors, then you can use pretty long and complex sentences, as long as you make sure that they are reasonably well-written. Indeed, those professors probably will get quite annoyed if all your sentences are too short and simple.
You write for high school dropouts? Prefer short and simple sentences. Complex sentences challenge them.
Of course the two examples above are extremes. But the basic point is, adapt to your audience.
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@Welton431
There is no specific rule about how many words should be there in a easy sentence. As long as the words used are not too complex, not repeating, and are delivering the message clearly, the sentence could be as long as 20 to 40 words (1-2 lines).
Focus more on the grammar and punctuation, as they have to be correct for the content to be easily understandable.
(I'm considering that the audience of your blog is common public.)
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