A paragraph made entirely of long sentences feels exhausting; one made entirely of short sentences feels choppy. The best writing mixes both.

Notice

  • All long: “Although the proposal had significant merit, the committee, after lengthy deliberation involving multiple stakeholders, ultimately decided that the associated costs, which had not been fully accounted for in the initial estimates, outweighed the potential long-term benefits.”
  • Mixed for rhythm: “The proposal had real merit. But after weeks of deliberation, the committee found the true costs hadn’t been properly estimated. In the end, those costs outweighed the benefits.”

Rule

Rule: a short sentence after a long one creates emphasis and gives the reader a moment to breathe. Deliberately varying sentence length — rather than letting it happen by accident — is a mark of confident, controlled C2 writing.

Practice

  1. Why does a short sentence after a long, complex one often feel emphatic?
    Answer: The contrast in length and pace draws attention to the short sentence, making its point land with extra weight.
  2. Rewrite this into two sentences, one long and one short, for rhythm: “The project failed because of poor planning, insufficient funding, and a lack of communication between departments, and it was a disaster.”
    Answer: Example: “The project failed because of poor planning, insufficient funding, and a lack of communication between departments. It was a disaster.”
  3. What effect does an unbroken string of long sentences tend to have on a reader?
    Answer: It can feel exhausting or dense, making the writing harder to follow even if each individual sentence is grammatically fine.

Connect

Practise varying sentence length for rhythm in the Writing Practice Hub.

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CEFR: C2

Azizul Hakim
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