In my writing skills training sessions, I always talk about sentence length. I point to American Press Association research that found:
- When the average sentence length of a story is less than eight words, readers understand 100% of it
- At 14 words, comprehension is more than 90%
- At 43 words, comprehension is less than 10%
We’ve probably all written things with incredibly long sentences, almost always inadvertently.
But as this research shows, it’s always a waste of time when we do.
Most of the time when we write, we write with a purpose. We want to pass on information or get an answer to a question.
If our writing isn’t effective for whatever reason, we don’t pass on the information successfully or get the answer we need. We waste our time and we waste our readers’ time.
But what makes writing effective?
For the authors of a book I’ve just started reading, effective writing is underpinned by six principles:
- Use fewer words
- Lower the reading level
- Use formatting judiciously
- Make the purpose clear for skimmers
- Make responding as easy as possible
I’m looking forward to exploring their research behind the principles. At the same time, I also think that the book’s 242 pages are perfectly well summed up in the 26-word list above.
The book is Writing for Busy Readers by Todd Rogers and Jessica Lasky-Finch. If it’s an area that interests you too and you get yourself a copy, do let me know what you think – I’d love to know!
