Cheers, Sharon. As a reader, it really makes you measure the words and pace your reading. By writing paragraphs that are composed of five or six succinct, individual sentences, you won’t be asking your reader to work at reading. Report a problem. “Dusk had settled around Morini and Johns now. “My brother does not understand my husband’s inability to perceive the advantage in the rather common real-estate transaction known as “sale-leaseback,” and my husband in turn does not understand why so many of the people he hears about in my father’s house have recently been committed to mental hospitals or booked on drunk-driving charges. In this age when everything happens fast and gets accomplished in a split second, you might find the need to shorten your sentences so that your write-ups will be actually read. VCE is a registered trademark of the VCAA. So let’s get started. Usually it’s a Sentence-Verb-Object sentence (SVO), an order that seems to underscore the simplicity. Avoid pretentious words as this can give an impression that your sentences are long. Preview and details Files included (1) docx, 84 KB. Please note, a short sharp sentence falls under the category of sentence structure in regards to Language Analysis. Nowhere. Short-Sharp-Sentences. Using long sentences will result to a longer written summary, defeating the purpose of writing a summary. Under a gibbous moon horse and rider spanceled to their shadows on the snowblue ground and in each flare of lightning as the storm advanced those selfsame forms rearing with a terrible redundancy behind them like some third aspect of their presence hammered out black and wild upon the naked grounds. The short sentence can have a complex idea. He’s known for the five-page sentence in 2666 totaling more than two thousand words, and for the page-long sentences of By Night in Chile. Your words about Jesus almost made me cry. My brother refers to my husband, in his presence, as “Joan’s husband.” Marriage is the classic betrayal.“. Others use long sentences only occasionally, in an inverse model to the ones you describe above. Both those differences make the last sentence stop hard: “Oh, it was gorgeosity and yumyumyum. “When the factories close down, when the workers go back home to their families without a payslip in their pockets, when the price of living goes up and the quality of life goes down, where will the Government be to help? You can always incorporate every detail in a long sentence, but it will leave the reader confused as numerous details and ideas are crammed into one very lengthy sentence. sharp; sharp-and-a-half; sharp-as-a-tack; sharpbill; sharpbills; sharpchin-flyingfish They can usher in a fantastic plot revelation with a deft flick of a few syllables. In the above example, this change in rhythm can be seen in how a reader would pause on the punctuation of the last two sentences. Always get the gist of what you want you intended to say. With long sentences and lengthy narrations, you will definitely bore your readers as well as give them a headache. Dragging means having an idea, plot or story circle in the same direction for a long time. What I love about this paragraph is that it’s shaped like a funnel. I’ve read it all, first to last paragraph – I rarely do that. Link to Bookshop.org or similar. Word funnel, ending with super short sentence?). His short story Incarnations of Burned Children — about a horrifying moment when a pan of boiling water falls on a child — is only 3 pages, but it’s full of sentences topping the 100-word mark. It’s so normal that it’s fantastical! For some reason I see the triple-short sentence as the most popular variety of this form. This list of beautiful short sentence examples should help you write sentences that stun and dazzle. It’s the perfect way to end a paragraph. That’s some great advice for writers. Long sentences provide a lot of details but nothing can grab the reader’s attention like short sentences can. When you are tasked to make a book summary, for example, always take advantage of using short sentences. 100,000+ Designs, Documents Templates in PDF, Word, Excel, PSD, Google Docs, PowerPoint, InDesign, Apple Pages, Google Sheets, Publisher, Apple Numbers, Illustrator, Keynote. Using short sentences is effective in building tension which aids in the overall quality and readability of the novel or story. Categories & Ages. It will very difficult for you and to the reader if you use long sentences. I adore what short sentences can do — hopefully this will inspire many writers! In fact, I won’t even attribute the first lines below, and you can probably guess most of them: Why is it so powerful to start a book with a short sentence? One word. The nurse sat down again. It’s in the wardrobe.” In that way, there will be fewer chances of your brother asking you to repeat where the towel is located. Look at how all those short sentences in a row slow down time. I’m grateful for your words. It changes the entire atmosphere of the scene. Short sentences rarely have the ambiguity or mystery of a long sentence. You recognize a short sentence when you see one. Almost every sentence of mine had one. Each thought should be separated by a period or a semicolon, not a comma. Short-Sharp-Sentences. 5. Avoid getting verbose. His short story. “They cut the throats of the packanimals and jerked and divided the meat and they traveled under the cape of the wild mountains upon a broad soda plain with dry thunder to the south and rumors of light. We use it for a myriad of reasons but no matter how we commonly practice the use of short sentences, there are still some people who would get confused with this kind of sentence. This is a fantastic sentence not because of rhythms, or because of contrast with longer sentences around it, but because how much is accomplished with only two words. For example, you want to instruct your brother to get the towel in the bedroom. The effect is violence. The reader enters the world you’ve created without any delay or apprehension. It’s not easy. For although each man among them was discrete unto himself, conjoined they made a thing that had not been before and in that communal soul were wastes hardly reckonable more than those whited regions on old maps where monsters do live and where there is nothing other of the known world save conjectural winds.”. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. My brother refers to my husband, in his presence, as “Joan’s husband.”, Practice quizzes, bonus PDFs, and writing challenges, Roberto Bolano is not known for his short sentences. This idea wasn’t completely new, but fleshed out in perfect detail. David Foster Wallace uses a short sentence to provide the sole commentary in a … In the essay, “On Going Home” she writes about the friction of visiting her parents with her husband, and all the small ways her husband is at odds with her family: “My brother does not understand my husband’s inability to perceive the advantage in the rather common real-estate transaction known as “sale-leaseback,” and my husband in turn does not understand why so many of the people he hears about in my father’s house have recently been committed to mental hospitals or booked on drunk-driving charges. Instead of going for “Can you please get my towel that is hanging in my wardrobe?“, you can just say “Please get my towel. If your sentence can still be understood without those phrases, then weed it out. What a powerful three words. What is the effect of short sentences? Here are some examples on why you should prefer using short sentences over longer ones in specific situations: 1. Here three friends are visiting a painter named Johns, who cut off his hand as an act of performance art. Short sentences use lesser elements in order to form a comprehensive statement. Want to suggest an edit? Do you want to grab your listener or reader’s attention? That’s why Gabriel Garcia Marquez said that he used to spend months trying to get the first sentence right, but when he did, the rest of the book fell into place. If you are writing a book, writing short sentences allows you to focus on the important parts of the story, as well lessen your printing costs. American comic book writer Len Wein once said: In general, shorter is better. In stories or novels, one indication that something major is going to happen is that short sentences are written more frequently. Both sentences are short but truncated sentences are intentionally cut short or truncated, hence the term.