From the course: Writing in Plain English
Join today to access over 24,600 courses taught by industry experts.
Use short, simple sentences when writing in plain English
From the course: Writing in Plain English
Use short, simple sentences when writing in plain English
- [Instructor] Short sentences are a pillar of plain language. But why does sentence length matter? Well, because long sentences make you work harder to read and to understand. For plain language writing, the ideal sentence length is fifteen to twenty words. More than that, and a sentence probably discusses multiple ideas and puts more strain on readers. Shorter sentences have more oomph too. They emphasize key points, whereas in much longer sentences, your main ideas can get lost. Keeping sentences short also makes it easy to keep your subject and verb close together, which also makes sentences easy to read. Here's an example. First, the longer sentence. "Making extra virgin olive oil, which is considered to be the highest quality and most flavorful type of olive oil, involves crushing olives into paste and then separating the oil from the other compounds using only mechanical means, without the use of chemicals or excessive heat." Well, that sentence has multiple ideas. The oil has…
Practice while you learn with exercise files
Download the files the instructor uses to teach the course. Follow along and learn by watching, listening and practicing.
Download courses and learn on the go
Watch courses on your mobile device without an internet connection. Download courses using your iOS or Android LinkedIn Learning app.
Contents
-
-
-
-
-
-
(Locked)
Use short, simple sentences when writing in plain English3m 44s
-
(Locked)
Avoid there are sentences when writing in plain English1m 44s
-
(Locked)
Use the present tense when writing in plain English1m 20s
-
(Locked)
Avoid noun clusters when writing in plain English1m 59s
-
(Locked)
Use positive language when writing in plain English1m 36s
-
(Locked)
-
-
-