3 ms·

English is not my first language, so it astonishes me that some people really think that short sentences make good writing. Anyone can write bad prose using sho

English is not my first language, so it astonishes me that some people really think that short sentences make good writing. Anyone can write bad prose using short sentences. Moreover, by writing in this way the language loses any kind of spice, so it's not a surprise that journalism and technical texts are so unpalatable. Another consequence is that even educated people never stop sounding like they're talking to a ten year old.

coliveira 6y ago
But in a sense I realize why this is a problem in English: German an some latin languages have grammatical structure to make it easier to create and understand long phrases. English lacks much of that structure. So, long phrases are difficult to parse. Compare for example Proust novels written in English and in his French original. In English it is almost gibberish, even in good translations.
- ghaff 6y ago
  That's probably true. I would have had to work to parse the first sentence in that article. The other thing going on is that, for many situations, the use of punctuation within long sentences to help the reader has sort of fallen out of fashion relative to breaking long sentences up. It's probably also more acceptable to use sentence fragments in certain types of prose.
  - com2kid 6y ago
    > The other thing going on is that, for many situations, the use of punctuation within long sentences to help the reader has sort of fallen out of fashion relative to breaking long sentences up. Semicolons, colons, and dashes, are rarely used now days. Heck I am impressed when I see a dash properly used, I myself cannot lay claim to such knowledge. I am almost 100% certain that their usage was not taught to me in either school or college.
    - ghaff 6y ago
      I use em dashes a fair bit (and have to remember the spacing style of the publication I'm writing for). But I'm much more inclined to break a sentence in two rather than use a semicolon unless there are two very connected thoughts.

coliveira 6y ago

But in a sense I realize why this is a problem in English: German an some latin languages have grammatical structure to make it easier to create and understand long phrases. English lacks much of that structure. So, long phrases are difficult to parse. Compare for example Proust novels written in English and in his French original. In English it is almost gibberish, even in good translations.

ghaff 6y ago
That's probably true. I would have had to work to parse the first sentence in that article. The other thing going on is that, for many situations, the use of punctuation within long sentences to help the reader has sort of fallen out of fashion relative to breaking long sentences up. It's probably also more acceptable to use sentence fragments in certain types of prose.
- com2kid 6y ago
  > The other thing going on is that, for many situations, the use of punctuation within long sentences to help the reader has sort of fallen out of fashion relative to breaking long sentences up. Semicolons, colons, and dashes, are rarely used now days. Heck I am impressed when I see a dash properly used, I myself cannot lay claim to such knowledge. I am almost 100% certain that their usage was not taught to me in either school or college.
  - ghaff 6y ago
    I use em dashes a fair bit (and have to remember the spacing style of the publication I'm writing for). But I'm much more inclined to break a sentence in two rather than use a semicolon unless there are two very connected thoughts.