I was thinking about the issue of reading long sentences. I even see sentences so long one sentence takes up an entire paragraph. This always bothered me; even in reading books and such, so I want to write/talk about it. Not just from a newspaper standpoint but in regular reading, too.
But I don't want to sound like I'm being ignorant or insulting to other writers. I want to promote ease of reading and understand. (Consider: The longer the sentence, the harder to understand the point.)
Is it because writers think long sentences make them seem smart or do they just get rambling? (I’m guilty of rambling.) Yes, I know in college theses and such, it is appropriate to write long, convoluted sentences. I sometimes wonder if the intent is to purposely confuse the reader to somehow prove how intelligent the writer is.
Do people write like they think and/or speak? I know if I wrote every word my brain was thinking, I'd be going on and on and on. When my brain is on fire and I’m thinking too much, sometimes I lose track of my original thought processes and the words get all turned around in my head.
Also, the brain and actual speech don't provide punctuation or proper grammar which is needed for the written word. I always say, “You can’t write like you talk,” unless you’re writing dialogue. Speech does ramble but the written word needs grammatical breaks for comprehension.
Or is it because writers don't think about making the story easily readable? They're just busy telling/writing the story. My writing often makes perfect sense to me, but in the re-reading/editing, I start catching things which don’t make good sense. And sometimes I don’t catch some of these things and another editor or proofreader picks them out. Or maybe I’m just getting old, and my brain doesn’t comprehend as quickly.
Whatever the case, all I know is if I need to keep going back and reading the sentence over from its start because I lose track of what’s really being said, I get bored and will tend to skip sections.
‘Course, I can’t do this when I’m editing for the newspaper, so I have to keep going back and re-reading. I figure, too, if I get confused, will other readers be confused? (I was told from the start when I began with the InterTown Record to write like I’m writing for eighth graders. Not because people aren’t intelligent, but because it makes it easier and quicker to read.)
So, the question is, do you want your writing to be easily read and understood? I’m sure everyone does. And no, most who write, don’t have to write for eighth graders unless they’re purposely writing a children’s book, but it’s important to write easily understandable passages.
Sometimes you want your writing to raise questions, but is it to question the meaning/confusion of the writing or is it about letting the topic inspire the brain to question things? Does the writing stir emotions? Does it want you to ask more, to know what happens next? Does it make you wonder about things you were taught to believe growing up as to whether that information is true?
I vaguely remember some rule years ago about putting in a comma where you’d take a breath (along with many rules about commas). However, too many commas, too many conjunctives in one sentence makes the sentence lose meaning.
Just a few thoughts in my quest to live wholeheartedly. To live whole heartedly is not only learning lessons for myself but to also share information and discoveries. If something I experience can help someone else be better at whatever they need, then that’s always a good thing.
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