Sentence length
How long should a sentence be in academic writing? This page has some useful tips to help you improve your academic writing.
You need to vary the length of sentences in your paragraphs. This is important to add interest to your writing, readability, and to show relationships between ideas. Notice in the following example that all sentences are similar in length and structure. The ideas are not linked, making the writing disjointed.
Poor example
Recent changes in the sea, land and atmosphere have made it more difficult for animals and plants to sustain themselves. Derocher (2008), for example, claims that the ice cap in the Arctic is shrinking. This change constitutes a loss of feeding and breeding areas for polar bears. Polar bears are not alone in their loss of habitat. According to Walsh (2008) warming of the atmosphere in Costa Rica may have caused some species to become extinct. As the atmosphere gradually warms, they have nowhere to go and may eventually die out (Walsh 2008). These particular instances of an adversely affected environment may seem isolated and inconsequential. They may have profound effects on the subtle natural balances that all life exists within.
Improved example
Screen reader users, this text uses visual highlights to indicate different parts of a sentence. Each highlight is explained for your convenience.
Recent changes in the sea, land and atmosphere have made it more difficult for animals and plants to sustain themselves. Derocher (2008), for example, claims that the ice cap in the Arctic is shrinking and that this change constitutes a loss of feeding and breeding areas for polar bears.1Screen reader users, this is a combined sentence. Polar bears are not alone in their loss of habitat.2Screen reader users, this is a short sentence. According to Walsh (2008) warming of the atmosphere in Costa Rica may have caused some species to become extinct. As the atmosphere gradually warms, they have nowhere to go and may eventually die out (Walsh 2008). While these particular instances of an adversely affected environment may seem isolated and inconsequential, they may have profound effects on the subtle natural balances that all life exists within.1Screen reader users, this is a combined sentence.
