Are short sentences "a thing" now?

[spankmytentacle]

I grew up in the era where books were the norm. And I find myself reading a lot of books even older than I am. It seems like sentences, even in fiction, are getting shorter and shorter. I just tried using Grammarly for the first time and it barked at me to "vary sentence length." This mirrors a general trend I've noticed - sentences have shrunk to the point where a sentence may be no more than three or four words. Is this the 160 character "twitter effect," or are attention spans getting shorter, or is it just "style?"

 

[SimonDoom]

I think the influence of journalism has a lot to do with it. The trend is not a new thing. Jane Austen, writing in the early 1800s, averaged 42 words per sentence. John Steinbeck, writing in the mid 1900s, averaged 18. Journalism encourages conveying as much information in as few words as possible. Economy is a virtue. This wasn't the case in 19th century writing, although authors like Mark Twain had journalistic experience and promoted a more journalistic style of writing.

Attention span has something to do with it, and my impression is that a lot of contemporary "young adult" fiction is written at a lower level than books that young people would have been expected to read 100 years ago. Modern reading practices like texting and reading and writing on the phone encourage short sentences, too.

I think "vary sentence length" is generally good advice that a new author is well advised to try to follow. A twin focus on variety and getting to the point makes reading more pleasurable (most of the time -- there are no universal rules in fiction).

 

[IWroteThis]

I think another factor is the current view on commas. People don't seem to like a lot of them, but they are necessary to make longer sentences flow. Also, em dashes and other ways of avoiding commas are known to cause problems with AI detection, so the "solution" is shorter, choppy sentences that don't use multiple clauses.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I grew up in the era where books were the norm. And I find myself reading a lot of books even older than I am. It seems like sentences, even in fiction, are getting shorter and shorter. I just tried using Grammarly for the first time and it barked at me to "vary sentence length." This mirrors a general trend I've noticed - sentences have shrunk to the point where a sentence may be no more than three or four words. Is this the 160 character "twitter effect," or are attention spans getting shorter, or is it just "style?"

Be careful with Grammarly. It will leave identifiable tags in your stories that can et you flagged as AI. There are other similar tools that don't do that.

 

[spankmytentacle]

Be careful with Grammarly. It will leave identifiable tags in your stories that can et you flagged as AI. There are other similar tools that don't do that.

Ugh, I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for the tip.
I would prefer to have a human editor or beta reader, but none seem to be available. I'm sure if I whipped out the ol' Visa card I could find someone, but money's tight right now.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

I go short.

Often.


Maybe too often?

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Varying sentence length is something that I consciously do and takes up much of my editing time. If all of the sentences are long, the read won't flow well. It will feel labored and/or tedious. Conversely, if all of the sentences are short, the read won't flow well. It will feel choppy and trite. Just be careful not to do the dramatic sum up method to sound cool (one single short sentence encapsulating the entire paragraph above - especially if this one short sentence is its own paragraph). It's something that has become popular in newspaper columns over the past few decades and it's cheesy. It's totally overwrought and takes the focus away from the substance. It shouts, "Hey, look at my dramatic prose! Forget my topic. Aren't I cool?"

 

[NotWise]

Aside from the trends that Mr. Doom pointed out, there were a series of studies done (mostly in the 1950's, I think) about what makes text more readable. The original studies were about technical manuals, but the results have been generalized to other kinds of writing. The studies indicated that text with an average sentence length of ~25 words are more readable.

Their are several reasons why writing sources recommend varying sentence length. It's a good thing. If the sentence lengths vary, then some sentences will be quite short, while others may exceed the 25-word guideline. I use short sentences for impact and longer sentences for flow, and I mix them to avoid being either too choppy or too smooth.

If you're writing dialog, then there's another reason for shorter sentences. Short sentences and sentence fragments are natural in dialog and can be used to good effect as long as the dialog remains comprehensible.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

There's mood implied by sentence length, too.

Fast, exciting action:

Right! Left! The punches flew. One punch. Another. Then another, harder!

Slow, sensual action:

Eyes closed, she felt and heard intensely. She heard her lover's breath in her ear, felt gentle fingers stroke down her back, felt a soft, moist, warm tongue tip against the lobe. Holding her breath, she struggled not to giggle, squirming and clutching Rob as he trailed his tongue up her ear, the feeling both tickling and incredibly stimulating. The sound and vibrating feel of Ron's laugh, and the hilarity of her own struggle to hold still, set her off, and they were both suddenly giggling and embracing tightly.

--Annie

 

[RocketGrunt]

No.

 

[Britva415]

I just tried using Grammarly for the first time and it barked at me to "vary sentence length." This mirrors a general trend I've noticed - sentences have shrunk

Doesn’t sound “varied” to me. I’m not seeing the connection.

A shit load of long-ass sentences is ponderous in 2025 and was ponderous in 1825. Varying them isn’t something which wasn’t done before the 21st century.

 

[Britva415]

No.

but also yes

but no

 

[KittyOfSteele]

A thing? I think they've existed since as far back as the dime novel era. Hemingway was one who casted votes for minimalism. Even in 2016 it was encouraged to use shorter sentences, or at least in Spanish.

If it's a trend, it sure lasts for a very long time!

 

[StillStunned]

Back in the day, Word used to complain about sentences being longer than 10 words.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Some say the shortest sentence is 'I am."

Some say the longest sentence is "I do."

 

[Britva415]

Jesus wept.

 

[TheLobster]

Short sentences and sentence fragments are natural in dialog

I couldn’t disagree more. People rarely speak with full stops. At best, they take breaks worthy of a comma; but most often, in realistic speech, utterances would have to be punctuated with ellipses if you were to write them down.

 

[WittyUserName]

I grew up in the era where books were the norm. And I find myself reading a lot of books even older than I am. It seems like sentences, even in fiction, are getting shorter and shorter. I just tried using Grammarly for the first time and it barked at me to "vary sentence length." This mirrors a general trend I've noticed - sentences have shrunk to the point where a sentence may be no more than three or four words. Is this the 160 character "twitter effect," or are attention spans getting shorter, or is it just "style?"

I sometimes struggle with writing sentences that are too long, then I have to break them up. I have seen some shorter sentences, of course, but I haven't really noticed what you're talking about. People do tend to ramble in their speech, at least I do! I try and whisper the statement out loud when I'm writing, to make sure it sounds like something someone would actually say.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

but most often, in realistic speech, utterances would have to be punctuated with ellipses if you were to write them down.

And I type that way here ... sometimes.

 

[AG31]

If you're writing dialog, then there's another reason for shorter sentences. Short sentences and sentence fragments are natural in dialog and can be used to good effect as long as the dialog remains comprehensible.

Unless you're portraying someone who speaks in long sentences. A pedant? A delightfully articulate person?

To state a generalization. None of these generalizations should be applied in all situations.

 

[Bramblethorn]

A thing? I think they've existed since as far back as the dime novel era. Hemingway was one who casted votes for minimalism. Even in 2016 it was encouraged to use shorter sentences, or at least in Spanish.

If it's a trend, it sure lasts for a very long time!

Hemingway's style is minimal but not always as terse as his reputation would have it. Here's a paragraph from A Farewell to Arms, broken up sentence by sentence so it's easier to see how sentence lengths vary:

That night at the hotel, in our room with the long empty hall outside and our shoes outside the door, a thick carpet on the floor of the room, outside the windows the rain falling and in the room light and pleasant and cheerful, then the light out and it exciting with smooth sheets and the bed comfortable, feeling that we had come home, feeling no longer alone, waking in the night to find the other one there, and not gone away; all other things were unreal.

We slept when we were tired and if we woke the other one woke so no one was not alone.

Often a man wishes to be alone and a girl wishes to be alone too and if they love each other they are jealous of that in each other, but I can truly say we never felt that.

We could feel alone when we were together, alone against the others.

It has only happened to me like that once.

I have been alone while I was with many girls and that is the way you can be most lonely.

But we were never lonely and never afraid when we were together.

I know that the night is not the same as the day: that all things are different, that the things of the night cannot be explained in the day, because they do not then exist, and the night can be a dreadful time for lonely people once their loneliness has started.

But with Catherine there was almost no difference in the night except that it was an even better time.

If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them.

The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places.

But those that will not break it kills.

It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially.

If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.

That first sentence is something like 87 words. You'd go a long way to find a sentence that long in a modern-day novel. But for all its length it's still quite straightforward to read.

 

[spankmytentacle]

A thing? I think they've existed since as far back as the dime novel era. Hemingway was one who casted votes for minimalism. Even in 2016 it was encouraged to use shorter sentences, or at least in Spanish.

If it's a trend, it sure lasts for a very long time!

I only use short sentences in Spanish, because I don't know that many words. "La tienda es cerrado. El pez esta muerto."

 

[spankmytentacle]

I couldn’t disagree more. People rarely speak with full stops. At best, they take breaks worthy of a comma; but most often, in realistic speech, utterances would have to be punctuated with ellipses if you were to write them down.

Hear, hear! The ellipsis is underused, if you ask me (which no one did.)

 

[KittyOfSteele]

I only use short sentences in Spanish, because I don't know that many words. "La tienda es cerrado. El pez esta muerto."

Are you trying to say whether the store is close, or the store is closed? If the store is close, "La tienda está cerca." If the store is closed, "La tienda está cerrada." Still, keep practicing! I guess it's difficult coming from English to get used to having two different verbs for the verb "to be."

 

[Britva415]

I couldn’t disagree more. People rarely speak with full stops. At best, they take breaks worthy of a comma; but most often, in realistic speech, utterances would have to be punctuated with ellipses if you were to write them down.

What you're pushing back against is "short utterances (or sentences) are natural" in speech.

Which must mean that your position is that they're unnatural. I really don't feel like I'm playing a "hahaa, gotcha" game on you here - this really appears to be what you believe.

That's pretty hard to defend.