There's more to say on sentence length
May
The October 2014 issue saw the battle lines drawn. In his article Does Length Matter?, Dr Geoffrey Marnell challenged received wisdom, presenting evidence that a sentence's length is of less importance than the number of ideas it contains.
Judy Knighton, a member of Write Limited’s plain English consulting team since 2009 and a technical communicator since 1986, published a spirited response in the February 2015 edition. Knighton argues Marnell on several points, and asserts that there is ample evidence that excessive sentence length affects readability.
Marnell has the final word, and it is clear that this is a debate that will continue to rage.
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