3 ms·
Much of my job is scientific writing. I don't see long sentences as something that is automatically bad. I do see them as a kind of "writing smell" (much like a
by michaelhoffman 11y ago
Much of my job is scientific writing. I don't see long sentences as something that is automatically bad. I do see them as a kind of "writing smell" (much like a "code smell") that can indicate something hard to understand. And often the long sentences could be bisected with an increase of understanding.
When possible I write with a text editor and LaTeX, with one sentence per line. This makes it really easy to identify sentences that might possibly be too long.
- dmlorenzetti 11y agoOne sentence per line is also an excellent strategy for when it comes time to "diff" two files. It helps diff identify edits (by giving it more anchoring lines to figure out what's actually changed), and it makes the output much easier to read.
- tbrgmnn 11y agoThis was discussed here before: "One sentence per line, please", https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4642395 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4642395