After posting yesterday about a 66-word sentence, I came across Grammar Girl‘s column on the same topic. Quoting Bonnie Trenga of Sentence Sleuth, she says about why you should keep it brief:
“Your readers are following a path you’ve laid out for them. Don’t try to be a turbo guide and make them traipse along too many side streets…Your readers just don’t have a very long attention span, and their feet tire easily.”
Her advice:
“The best way to cut down a super-long sentence is to figure out your main points. (You’ve probably crammed two or three main points into your long sentence.) Once you remember what they are, highlight each one with its own medium-sized sentence.”
For our readers’ sake, let’s do it!