Tips for Clear Communication - 4. Succinct Sentences

4. Use succinct sentences.
Ideas are packaged as sentences. Listeners can't start processing an idea until they’ve caught the sense of the sentence. That’s why it’s a good idea to keep sentences short. According to the Readers’ Digest style guide, the ideal sentence length is between 17 and 20 words. That works quite well for talks too. Take the time to analyse the average sentence length of your last sermon. (If you use Microsoft Word, you can enable the ‘Readability Score’ feature by selecting Tools | Options | Spelling & Grammar. After checking spelling and grammar, information about the reading level of the document is displayed, based on the average number of syllables per word and words per sentence. Aim for a score of 70 to 80 on the Flesch Reading Ease scale, or 6.0 to 7.0 on the Flesch-Kincaid scale.)

I confess. I used long, multi-claused sentences, then wondered why people didn’t stick with me. But don’t be fooled. This isn’t about “dumbing down” your content. It’s about communicating complex content clearly. (Note, however, that excessive alliteration is no longer considered tasteful.)