Academic writing conveys clear and precise information, and to this end, it places great importance on well-constructed and carefully thought-out content. But beware! Many times, these basic features cause academic sentences to become long and complicated, making the text difficult to read.

In this article, let’s look at some tips that will help you maintain an appropriate length of your sentence so that you can communicate your message or idea more effectively to the reader, which is otherwise difficult to achieve, in a long sentence where readers have to go through chains of words and ideas without any breaks or pauses, making it harder to process all the information and keep in mind what the original message or overall goal was when they started reading the sentence and where all this information is leading to!

Long, complicated sentences affect comprehension and readability. Period. Without careful crafting, they can be very difficult to understand. On the other hand, sentences that are too short make writing choppy, lacking flow, and unable to contain complex thoughts.Is there a way to optimize sentence length? Fortunately, there is.Here are some tips:

1. Acceptable To Begin A Sentence With A Numeral

The question of whether it is acceptable to begin a sentence with a numeral is a common one among writers, editors, and students. In English writing, certain rules and guidelines dictate when and how to start sentences with numbers. This article explores the rules, exceptions, and best practices to help you write clearly and correctly.

• Understanding the Basic Rule

In general, it is considered poor form to begin a sentence with a numeral. This guideline helps maintain readability and a professional appearance in your writing. For example:

• Incorrect: 5 cats were playing in the yard.
• Correct: Five cats were playing in the yard.

The primary reason for this rule is that starting a sentence with a numeral can be jarring for the reader and disrupt the flow of the text.

2. Appropriate sentence length

Most readability formulas use the number of words in a sentence to measure its difficulty. Try to keep the average sentence length of your paper between 20 and 25 words. This is a good rule of thumb to convey your meaning in a balanced way and avoid a marathon or choppy sentence. The number varies depending on the field, audience, or nature of the writing. For example, the average sentence length in abstracts in the natural sciences is reported to be shorter than that found in abstracts in the social sciences and humanities.

3. Vary the length of your sentence

Don’t follow a strict length for each sentence. Your writing should have a mix of short, medium, and long sentences. The advice above suggests an average for a long sentence. Incorporating variety in academic writing prevents monotony, creates emphasis when needed, and helps the reader understand the connections between different points.

If you find that your sentence is as long as a paragraph or around 40–50 words, break it up into smaller sentences. Similarly, if your text has many consecutive short sentences, join them together.

4. Focus on your message

Don’t force two or three main ideas into one long sentence. Know your main points and make them with pauses by breaking them up into smaller sentences. Losing the focus of your message will lead to long, disjointed sentences. When conveying a series of facts, don’t unnecessarily connect all the facts into one sentence, break them up into smaller sentences.

5. How to fix short sentences

Combining sentences into one longer sentence is a simple way to correct short, choppy sentences. Use coordinating conjunctions (or, and, nor, but, or, however, so) to avoid chains of short, loosely related sentences. Subordinating conjunctions (after, since, while, because, etc.) are also used to effectively connect sentences and ideas.

6. How to fix long sentences

Following the opposite of the previous suggestion, eliminate excessive coordinating conjunctions and instead use a full stop to begin a new sentence. Avoid beginning a sentence with qualifiers such as “although,” “because,” or “since.” Avoid comma-filled sentences and adding information into a long sentence with commas.

7. Use concise expressions

Writing concisely and avoiding redundancy plays a huge role in protecting your text from marathon sentences. You could avoid sentence starters with there is/it is/it is, reduce non-essential verb phrases and prepositional phrases, and use the active voice.

Conclusion

In summary, while it is generally advisable to avoid starting sentences with numerals, understanding the exceptions and best practices can help you write more effectively. By adhering to these guidelines, you can ensure that your writing is clear, professional, and grammatically correct. Whether you are writing an academic paper, a technical document, or a casual blog post, these tips will help you navigate the rules surrounding numerals in sentences.