How to Optimize Sentence Length in Your Research Papers

Academic writing should provide accurate information in a well-structured form. Your content should be informative and clear. However, quite often, you can see how sentences in academic writing become too lengthy and the text becomes hard to read and to comprehend. Experts from writers-house.com decided to share some tips with you so that you can write sentences of the right length, clearly communicating your ideas to your audience. Your readers shouldn’t struggle to understand what you wanted to say because they should also keep in mind the main message of your paper and your thesis statement while reading it.

Too long sentences cause a negative impact on readability and comprehension. They are hard to understand unless you put a lot of effort into organizing them in the right way. However, too short sentences will not allow you to express complex ideas. Is it possible to choose the optimal length for your sentences? The answer is yes, and we will teach you how to do it.

1. The right sentence length

The main secret of readability is to adjust the length of a sentence to its difficulty. We recommend that you write sentences that are about 20 to 25 words long. This way, you can use the rule of thumb to maintain balance and avoid confusing sentences. Obviously, the exact number of words depends on your audience, the type of writing, and your field. For instance, sentences might be shorter in abstracts of papers on the natural sciences, while humanities and social sciences allow you to use longer sentences.

2. Write different sentences

Don’t try to write sentences of the same length. Your text should contain short, medium, and long sentences. The previous tip considers long sentences. Don’t make your academic writing monotone and vary the length of your sentences so that you can both communicate complex ideas and emphasize the most important points.

If you have a sentence that is 40-50 words long, just break it down into shorter pieces and vice versa: if there are several short sentences following one another, join them into one longer sentence.

3. Focus on the main message

Don’t describe several main ideas in the same sentence. Present your points in different shorter sentences because, otherwise, you will easily lose focus. There is also no need to provide a series of facts in the same sentence — you can always do it in two or three smaller sentences.

4. Fix shorter sentences

You can fix your choppy sentences if you combine them into a longer one. You can do it by using coordinating conjunctions (and, or, but, nor, yet, so) to avoid writing several short interrelated sentences. You can also connect ideas by using subordinating conjunctions (since, after, because, whereas, etc.).

5. Fix long sentences

To turn your long sentences into groups of shorter ones, just do the opposite: remove excessive conjunctions and replace them with periods. We recommend that you don’t write long sentences that contain too many commas.

6. Make your expressions concise

Avoid redundancy and write concisely. This simple advice will help you avoid long sentences that are hard to read. Reduce unnecessary prepositional phrases, write in the active voice, and don’t start your sentences with “there is”/”it is.”