Writers are often advised to avoid long sentences. This is obviously wrong: the thing to avoid are complicated sentences. Long sentences can be simple if they d

Writers are often advised to avoid long sentences. This is obviously wrong: the thing to avoid are complicated sentences. Long sentences can be simple if they don't require the reader to remember previous parts in order to parse the rest. Instead, each part extends the thought made in the previous one, with appropriate punctuation showing the relationship between the two; this sort of sentence can go on for lines without confusing anyone. A confusing sentence requires the reader to remember which verb was used forty words back, before it went off on a tangent. The cure for such sentences isn't simply bisecting them. Rearranging can bring separateed pieces of an idea together; if that doesn't work, one must drop the idea then explicitly take it up again later. Or, more brutally, axe the tangential remark. Not everything needs to be said, but if it does, say it somewhere else. Seventy words shorter. I would have done the rest but I expired.