Macmillan Holdings, LLC. Grammar Girl, Grammar Girl's, QDnow, and Quick and Dirty Tips are all trademarks of Macmillan Holdings, LLC. Bring back your readers with sentences that are the perfect length. Judy Wright grammar Here's a diagrammed sentence from Nathaniel Hawthorne: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IoU3bEFUwWc/SquMdEXIe4I/AAAAAAAAGN4/qDQ5fHrKI8k/s1600-h/The+Scarlet+Letter.jpg http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/sentence-length.aspx?commentid=20606#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/sentence-length.aspx?commentid=20606#Comments Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:27:06 GMT Elaine grammar "The book explained the why's so well." I cannot find the rule in any of my books covering the apostrophe in the word "why's." Thank you for helping so many people. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/sentence-length.aspx?commentid=15497#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/sentence-length.aspx?commentid=15497#Comments Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:46:24 GMT Kristal grammar Okay so basically what I've learned about this podcast is to shorten a long sentence you must take out the not so important info. and leave in the main facts. Meaning make it short and sweet, so eliminate the not so important details and get straight to the point. Thanks for the good advise.:) http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/sentence-length.aspx?commentid=14335#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/sentence-length.aspx?commentid=14335#Comments Tue, 14 Oct 2008 06:30:22 GMT Alan Anderson grammar Speaking of long sentences, here's one from "The Mock Turtle's Story" in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. "I quite agree with you," said the Duchess; "and the moral of that is--'Be what you would seem to be'--or, if you'd like it put more simply--'Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.'" Consider only this part of that sentence: Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise. A friend and I used to challenge each other with parsing complicated sentences, and I thought this one would stump him. But he made some progress on it, and I completed it. Anybody want to give it a try? http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/sentence-length.aspx?commentid=12629#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/sentence-length.aspx?commentid=12629#Comments Mon, 19 May 2008 07:03:07 GMT johnboy grammar @IHateToast: You're absolutely right that people butcher words from foreign languages every day, and that is, to a certain degree, completely normal. However, we are talking about a person's name here (and a modern-era person’s name at that; he’s not your Julius Caesar or Martin Luther). Therefore, to my mind, this is somewhat different. And some Frenchmen getting your name wrong is not a guideline for speakers of English. We live by our own standards. If (!) that includes getting people's names wrong, so be it. But let's not do it to retaliate. Also, there is such a thing as convention. Proust is customarily pronounced Proost in English (consult the English Pronouncing Dictionary by Daniel Jones which covers both British and American English). The same goes for Vladimir Putin. We say Pootin. If someone doesn't know how to pronounce his name, he might end up with something that rhymes with button. Which, I suppose, most people would take exception to. Now maybe some Russians got your name wrong too. But I think it demonstrates pretty clearly that convention takes precedence over "it's probably pronounced like this". And let's be honest, people who say Prowst do not say that because they have difficulties saying Proost. It's not a matter of inability but one of ignorance or indifference. (And hosting a podcast on language use and referring to the someone a total of nine times does raise the bar.) So maybe it's time for an episode on pronunciation. :-) It's not part of grammar, but neither does sentence lenght. So why not? http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/sentence-length.aspx?commentid=12531#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/sentence-length.aspx?commentid=12531#Comments Tue, 06 May 2008 19:48:57 GMT IHateToast grammar hm. no french person has ever pronounced my name correctly even after having me say it several times. many americans mispronounce van gogh, but no one harps on about it. and americans butcher "debut" daily. australians and brits know there's no y-sound in that word. ah but point? sentence length. yes. i was going to say that all queensland government writers should listen to this. the whole thing is very government-esque. the topic and the off-topic comments. i feel like i'm in a meeting full of weenies. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/sentence-length.aspx?commentid=12509#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/sentence-length.aspx?commentid=12509#Comments Sun, 04 May 2008 23:17:19 GMT Katie grammar I realize that people have already said this, but I would like to reiterate how Proust is pronounced "Proost" instead of "Prowst". How could Grammar Girl of all people mispronounce such a famous author's name? http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/sentence-length.aspx?commentid=12491#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/sentence-length.aspx?commentid=12491#Comments Thu, 01 May 2008 22:44:47 GMT Marti grammar In the transcript, you wrote "Their honor precarious, their sentence too long." Why would you not use a semicolon instead of a comma? It is not connected with a conjunction. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/sentence-length.aspx?commentid=12481#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/sentence-length.aspx?commentid=12481#Comments Thu, 01 May 2008 11:42:20 GMT Vision grammar Opps, teachers not teachers' http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/sentence-length.aspx?commentid=12479#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/sentence-length.aspx?commentid=12479#Comments Thu, 01 May 2008 06:49:23 GMT Dan Kubiske grammar I teach journalism and am constantly fighting with my students over sentence length. They have to write academic papers for other classes in as style I describe as writing to impress -- big words and long sentences. I want them to write to communicate -- simple words and short sentences. A basic rule I give them: If you use the word "and" to connect two thoughts, drop it and insert a period. It is amazing how much clearer their writing becomes with that simple rule. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/sentence-length.aspx?commentid=12472#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/sentence-length.aspx?commentid=12472#Comments Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:28:22 GMT Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:27:06 GMT http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/sentence-length.aspx feedback@quickanddirtytips.com (Managing Editor) feedback@quickanddirtytips.com (Webmaster) en-us