Page 79 - English for Writing Research Papers

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In S5 the reader can easily and immediately understand the information because it is
now presented in three shorter blocks. Basically, you should be able to read a sen-
tence in one breath – try reading S5 aloud without stopping to breathe. It is not easy.

So a good general rule is that if the first part of a sentence is more than 12–15 words
long, don’t add a second part that is more than 10–12 words.
Finally, you will notice how using shorter sentences forces you to write much more
clearly. It is in fact much easier to write using long sentences – that is, it is easier for
you, but not for your reader!

4.3 Using short sentences will help your co-authors if they

need to modify your text
Manuscripts are often written by several co-authors. Having short sentences in the
initial draft means that co-authors can:
• add to them without making the resulting sentence too long

• change their order
For example S1 could easily be re-ordered (S2).

S1. English owes its origins to the Anglo Saxons, who were a tribe from what is now Denmark
and Northern Germany. // It has become the international language of communication. //
This is in part due to the importance of the USA, rather than the Queen of England. //
English is now studied by 1.1 billion people.
S2. English is now studied by 1.1 billion people. // It owes its origins to the Anglo Saxons,
who were a tribe from what is now Denmark and Northern Germany. // It has become the
international language of communication. // This is in part due to the importance of the
USA, rather than the Queen of England.

4.4 Using short sentence often entails repeating the key

word, thus improving clarity
When you divide up a long sentence you will inevitably have to repeat some key
words. You can see some examples of this in S5 in 4.1 and in S1 in 4.2 , where the
words survey and English are repeated in close proximity. Repeating key words is

NOT bad style in technical writing (see 6.4 and 6.5 ). In fact repetition helps readers
to follow your text, and it also helps your co-authors if they need to modify the order
of the sentences in your draft.