Don’t Stuff Your Sentences, Shorten Them Instead

Tip: stick to 1 idea per sentence. Try the other techniques too.

Illustration by Cynthia Marinakos.

Have you ever read a sentence that seemed to go on so long that you need to read it again to figure it out?

For instance, here’s a sentence about grants:

If an entity provides a sponsorship grant, and this sponsorship does not fall within an existing grant opportunity, then officials may either develop overarching guidelines that would cover all sponsorships, or develop specific guidelines attached or incorporated into a brief to the decision-maker or sponsorship letter.

It’s so long it looks like a paragraph on a webpage. It looks like a wall of text on a phone.

Your writing affects a user’s experience, especially when they need to:

• Complete a task.
• Get information.
• Follow a process.

For instance, on a website, an app, or a chatbot.

In this article, you’ll learn:

• Why it’s not your fault (that you stuff sentences)
• Why our readers need plain language
• The problem with stuffing your sentences
• How to write clear and concise…