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Use Shorter Sentences & Paragraphs

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Summary

Section titled “Summary”

Have you ever read a legal document with long, convoluted sentences? Did you find it hard to understand? Text with long, complex sentences and paragraphs can be difficult for people with language-related disabilities to read. Shorter sentences and paragraphs make content easier for everyone to read and understand.

Overview

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Long, complex sentences and paragraphs can make documents challenging to read. Content like this increases our cognitive load and slows our reading speed.

Complex sentences and paragraphs are difficult for everyone to understand, but they are particularly challenging for people with disabilities related to language skills. They can create barriers that prevent these individuals from processing and using information. Using shorter sentences and paragraphs increases readability for people with language-related disabilities and decreases everyone’s cognitive load.

Who is Helped

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Keeping sentences and paragraphs short helps:

  • People with cognitive or learning disabilities related to processing language or memory. It is easier for these individuals to scan and process more concise content.
  • People who are easily distracted can focus better when content is concise.
  • Everyone. We all benefit from more concise writing.

Guidelines

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Keep Sentences Short

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  • Each sentence should make one point.
  • Break longer sentences apart when possible.
  • Look for conjunctions like and, or, but, for, so, etc. Conjunctions often indicate sentences you can break apart.
  • Look for prepositions like of, to, on, etc. Prepositions often indicate phrases you can shorten.
  • Look for clauses in your sentences. A clause is a group of words that contains a subject and a related verb.
    • Place the clause at the beginning or end of the sentence.
    • Break sentences with two independent clauses (clauses that can stand alone) apart into two sentences when possible.
  • Avoid using excess modifiers. A modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that describes another word, phrase, or clause in a sentence.
  • Avoid repeating the same word.
  • Avoid using different words to present the same concept.

Keep Paragraphs Short

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  • Each paragraph should present a single idea.
  • Put the conclusion of the paragraph at the beginning.
  • Omit unneeded or redundant information.
  • Consider splitting paragraphs with more than 50 words.

Check Your Grammar

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Grammar-checking tools can suggest changes to identify and simplify content.

References

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