This sentence has five words.

[rug]

[hlthe2b]

1. I could not agree more. (yes, five words--LOL). Still, modern writing so emphasizes short, concise

sentences (and dumbing down to a sixth grade level), that I agree that it becomes boring. Heaven forbid the inclusion of a single sentence in passive voice....

I wasn't taught that way and I never read most good literature that so deemphasized "variety" in sentence length and structure. It has always irritated me that the past two decades have brought us down to such a low level of communication. Is it any wonder so few can read technical, legal, governmental, or scientific literature without their eyes glazing over?

[rug]

3. It's the Hemingway effect.

Which indeed got me wondering.

Hemingway’s Longest Sentence:

“That something I cannot yet define completely but the feeling comes when you write well and truly of something and know impersonally you have written in that way and those who are paid to read it and report on it do not like the subject so they say it is all a fake, yet you know its value absolutely; or when you do something which people do not consider a serious occupation and yet you know truly, that it is as important and has always been as important as all the things that are in fashion, and when, on the sea, you are alone with it and know that this Gulf Stream you are living with, knowing, learning about, and loving, has moved, as it moves, since before man, and that it has gone by the shoreline of that long, beautiful, unhappy island since before Columbus sighted it and that the things you find out about it, and those that have always lived in it are permanent and of value because that stream will flow, as it has flowed, after the Indians, after the Spaniards, after the British, after the Americans and after all the Cubans and all the systems of governments, the richness, the poverty, the martyrdom, the sacrifice and the venality and the cruelty are all gone as the high-piled scow of garbage, bright-colored, white-flecked, ill-smelling, now tilted on its side, spills off its load into the blue water, turning it a pale green to a depth of four or five fathoms as the load spreads across the surface, the sinkable part going down and the flotsam of palm fronds, corks, bottles, and used electric light globes, seasoned with an occasional condom or a deep floating corset, the torn leaves of a student’s exercise book, a well-inflated dog, the occasional rat, the no-longer-distinguished cat; all this well shepherded by the boats of the garbage pickers who pluck their prizes with long poles, as interested, as intelligent, and as accurate as historians; they have the viewpoint; the stream, with no visible flow, takes five loads of this a day when things are going well in La Habana and in ten miles along the coast it is as clear and blue and unimpressed as it was ever before the tug hauled out the scow; and the palm fronds of our victories, the worn light bulbs of our discoveries and the empty condoms of our great loves float with no significance against one single, lasting thing—the stream.”

https://sunalsorises.wordpress.com/2010/09/22/ever-wondered-about-hemingways-longest-sentence/

[hlthe2b]

4. Well, there is the other extreme, for sure!

[packman]

6. I was about to mention Hemingway

Taught about his skill in writing short, non descriptive sentences that avoided adjectives and the economy of his prose.

[lamp_shade]

2. This is great. Thank you. I shared it with a writer friend.

[classof56]

5. Thank you for this post.

As a writer, I practice what I call economy of words. I try never to use semicolons, which Kurt Vonnegut described as "transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing..."

Your post is so spot-on, I am copying it to include in my good-advice-for-writers file.

Cheers and keep writing, everyone!

[arcane1]

27. Have you ever read the essay "Notes on Punctuation" by Lewis Thomas?

It's great, and hilarious!

[classof56]

30. Thanks for the ref!

Just now read it, printed it off and yep, it's hilarious, definitely going in my "good advice" file. Only moments ago, I was having a conversation with my professional editor daughter, who's reading a novel on Kindle by an author unfamiliar to me. She remarked it's a good enough story, but the author is a terrible writer--knows nothing about the rules of punctuation, not to mention spelling. She just read Thomas' essay, pronounced it good.

Funny!

[Brainstormy]

29. Semicolons; lol

I always told my students that they could live long happy lives without ever using a semicolon. I've always thought they were a special abomination in fiction.

thanks for the Vonnegut reference!

[DirkGently]

7. Five are often too many.

Sometimes four will do.

Three hit harder.

Try it.

Okay?

[passiveporcupine]

18. Is that last bit

the picture is worth a thousand words?

[PatrickforO]

8. Beautiful. The English language is beautiful.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

9. One thing I've seen repeated often is, "The shortest sentence in the English Language is: "I am."

To which I reply, "So?"

[RufusTFirefly]

11. Reminds me of a joke about double negatives

When a teacher told his class, "Although you can use a double negative to mean a positive, you can't use a double positive to mean a negative," a student in the back muttered "Yeah, right."

[shadowmayor]

17. Perfect

That's how you English!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

21. Last time I heard that one was in the 80s.

[RufusTFirefly]

23. Haha. Yeah, it's, like, totally out of date now.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

24. Some things are timeless.

[1monster]

14. And the longest sentence in the English language is: "I do."

[Spitfire of ATJ]

22. .....heh.......

[lunatica]

10. An entire thought of anything can be expressed in one sentence

Period

[nolabear]

12. I agree. I think of music when I write too.

You have to help the reader. Create tension, break that tension, give periods of rest, throw in some lightness (particularly when dealing with dark matters), and so forth. It's like a satisfying concert, or a well constructed meal.

Good post!

[1monster]

13. What a terrific teaching graphic!

I'm printing it out for use in schools.

[mckara]

15. Except, Then, You Have a One Sentence Paragraph

And that's supposedly bad, too! You just can't win.

[w0nderer]

16. copying and emailing to my old English (2) teacher

CC'ing to my (1) language teacher too.

Thanks

[frogmarch]

19. Yes!

And this sentence is ! a premature punctuater

[rug]

20. Premature punctuation is very unsatisfying.

[RufusTFirefly]

25. And speaking of punctuation

Am I the only one who quibbles with the punctuation of the last sentence?

I think it might've made more sense to enclose the last six words inside quotation marks. It not only makes the sentence clearer, but it also avoids the perception of a run-on.

[rug]

26. Hmmm, it looks okay to me. Is it the dash?

[RufusTFirefly]

28. I can live with em dashes. Sometimes I really like them.

No, it's the uninterrupted transition from "say" to "listen" that gives me pause (perhaps because I feel it needs some sort of pause).

[Americananuck]

31. THIS sentence is a Lie

[aswanson]

32. Yes!

I absolutely agree--unfortunately this is something that i have trouble with in my own writing.