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At some point I was taught that in English (not my first language) short sentences are the norm. Now you tell me that short sentences convey a harsh tone. Wha

At some point I was taught that in English (not my first language) short sentences are the norm. Now you tell me that short sentences convey a harsh tone. What is one to do?! I use semi-colons as a sort of conjunction, not unlike the example you gave, in part to give me a way to lengthen sentences that would otherwise seem much too short.

emmelaich 5y ago
The trouble is you get advice in a context, and that context might not be known. The context for your advice is that writing long sentences is/was popular poor style. Especially for young and new readers of English.
- cryptonector 5y ago
  My observation is that in Romance languages writers (and readers, presumably!) like to create long sentences with lots of sub-clauses. It's almost a game where you have to read the whole 50 word sentence before you can parse it fully, having to push onto a mental stack quite a lot of state that you can only pop at the very very end. So in Romance languages one often finds sentences as long as entire paragraphs are in English! That approach doesn't work well in English for a number of reasons. For example, gendered nouns/adjectives can help disambiguate various parts of a long sentence; conversely, lacking gendered nouns/adjectives makes mixing multiple subjects and/or objects in one sentence much harder to pull off without causing severe ambiguities. Now, I can write that way in English -up to some limit to do with those ambiguities-, but when I do, I find it irritates certain readers. A rewrite of the preceding sentence: I can write that way in English, up to some limit to do with those ambiguities. When I do, I find it irritates certain readers. which is the style I find is more commonly used in the U.S. Usually I write sentences as they pop into my mind, then I edit them down into more numerous, shorter sentences.
  - rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y ago
    > Usually I write sentences as they pop into my mind, then I edit them down into more numerous, shorter sentences. This is interesting to me, because I do the exact opposite. I write my clauses more or less independently, then try to string the related clauses together with linking words punctuation in a way that flows naturally. I can't imagine composing long, complex sentences on the fly, and the only people I've seen that manage to do this in conversation are unusually erudite.
    - cryptonector 5y ago
      It may just be a cultural / linguistic thing. In Romance language cultures, long sentences are a given.
Zak 5y ago
There's a common, but far from universal perception that ending a single-sentence text message with a period conveys an angry or serious tone. That may extend to multiple short sentences in some contexts; I'm uncertain. https://www.npr.org/2020/09/05/909969004/before-texting-your-kid-make-sure-to-double-check-your-punctuation https://www.npr.org/2020/09/05/909969004/before-texting-your...

emmelaich 5y ago

The trouble is you get advice in a context, and that context might not be known. The context for your advice is that writing long sentences is/was popular poor style. Especially for young and new readers of English.

cryptonector 5y ago
My observation is that in Romance languages writers (and readers, presumably!) like to create long sentences with lots of sub-clauses. It's almost a game where you have to read the whole 50 word sentence before you can parse it fully, having to push onto a mental stack quite a lot of state that you can only pop at the very very end. So in Romance languages one often finds sentences as long as entire paragraphs are in English! That approach doesn't work well in English for a number of reasons. For example, gendered nouns/adjectives can help disambiguate various parts of a long sentence; conversely, lacking gendered nouns/adjectives makes mixing multiple subjects and/or objects in one sentence much harder to pull off without causing severe ambiguities. Now, I can write that way in English -up to some limit to do with those ambiguities-, but when I do, I find it irritates certain readers. A rewrite of the preceding sentence: I can write that way in English, up to some limit to do with those ambiguities. When I do, I find it irritates certain readers. which is the style I find is more commonly used in the U.S. Usually I write sentences as they pop into my mind, then I edit them down into more numerous, shorter sentences.
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y ago
  > Usually I write sentences as they pop into my mind, then I edit them down into more numerous, shorter sentences. This is interesting to me, because I do the exact opposite. I write my clauses more or less independently, then try to string the related clauses together with linking words punctuation in a way that flows naturally. I can't imagine composing long, complex sentences on the fly, and the only people I've seen that manage to do this in conversation are unusually erudite.
  - cryptonector 5y ago
    It may just be a cultural / linguistic thing. In Romance language cultures, long sentences are a given.

Zak 5y ago

There's a common, but far from universal perception that ending a single-sentence text message with a period conveys an angry or serious tone. That may extend to multiple short sentences in some contexts; I'm uncertain. https://www.npr.org/2020/09/05/909969004/before-texting-your-kid-make-sure-to-double-check-your-punctuation https://www.npr.org/2020/09/05/909969004/before-texting-your...