Length really does matter
People like reading short documents. They just do.
How long are your documents?
Do you throw in extra sections just in case? Do you let waffle and jargon creep in? At some point, we all let length get the better of us.
‘Brevity’, a memo by Winston Churchill. (He agrees with me!)
Documents overall can be too long. So can individual sentences.
People prefer shorter sentences
Here’s a quote from Writing for Busy Readers, by Todd Rogers and Jessica Lasky-Fink.
It’s generally easier to read two ten-word sentences than one twenty-word sentence. That may be one reason why the average length of written sentences has decreased over the years. Novels published in 100 averages twenty-seven words per sentence, whereas those published in 2000 averaged just ten words per sentence. In case you were wondering, the decrease in sentence length doesn’t mean we have become less intelligent. On the contrary, numerous studies have found rising IQ scores around the globe, a phenomenon known as the Flynn Effect.
Inaugural addresses delivered by US presidents have similarly incorporated shorter sentences over time. The first five sentences of President George Washington’s address in 1789 averaged sixty-four words, whereas the first five sentences of President Joseph Biden’s in 2021 averaged a mere seven words. We’re not cherry-picking the data. Nearly everywhere we look, we see a gradual but consistent decline in sentence length.
Website for the book Writing for Busy Readers
What can you cut out and still achieve your goal in writing?
That’s such a useful question, I’ll ask it again. What can you cut out and still achieve your goal in writing?
Notice the sparse text is in this reminder notice from Waka Kotahi. If transport experts can do it, so can you!
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