December 26, 2022

Writing for businesses can be a tricky endeavor. You want to create content and sales copy that’s both informative and engaging while making sure your words come together in a way that’s easy to read. One key technique to mastering this balance is sentence length variety.

Sentence length variety is the practice of alternating short sentences with longer ones. Short sentences are easier for readers to digest and help create contrast between points within your writing, while long sentences are better suited for more explanatory purposes. Different types of sentences also give your writing more texture, which helps capture the attention of readers and keep them engaged throughout the blog article or sales copy.

When used correctly, sentence length variety can improve the readability and effectiveness of your business’s communication material. By understanding when and how to include longer and shorter sentences, you can ensure that whatever you write comes across in an organized manner that won’t require too much reading effort from your audience. As you likely know, you want to get your message across to potential clients and customers with as little effort on their part as possible. Furthermore, this will help you make a better connection between your content and its intended readership, while at the same time providing information in an efficient way.

So how do you use varying sentence lengths for maximum impact in your business writing?

It’s difficult to outright state some hard and fast rules and/or guidelines when it comes to sentence variety. Mostly, it’s up to the ear of the writer (and their proofreaders) to determine if what they’ve written could benefit from some sentence length variation. Since sentence variety is more or less a stylistic thing, that means it can be one of the last things learned and mastered by someone who speaks English as a second language. Usually, in the initial stages of learning English, it’s all about mastering the rules of the language. Stylistic things after.

Another thing to consider when it comes to writing for your business is sometimes it’s effective to break grammar rules. Off the top of my head, one of the key ways to do this is, in my opinion, by using a list of bulleted points. A bulleted list is an excellent way to break up text and make it easier for the reader to quickly grasp what you’re saying. In a way, bulleted lists are a cheat code for injecting some sentence length variety into your business writing. Also, another benefit of bulleted lists are that they help keep a lot of white space surrounding the text, which always helps in readability.

Don’t forget that sentence length variety doesn’t have to be done with words alone; you can also mix it up with punctuation, such as using an em dash (—) or semi-colon (;) to link two related thoughts in a single sentence. By doing this, you add complexity and interest to your writing while still keeping it reader-friendly.

Ultimately, it’s all about finding a balance between short, concise phrases as well as longer sentences that explain complex topics—so experiment with different constructions until you find what works best for communicating with your clientele. After all, mastering sentence length variety will allow you to communicate effectively while still keeping reader engagement high!

When running your business, it can be hard to find the time to get too caught up in worrying about the sentence length variation in the written content of your business. After all, there are plenty of other things that you need to focus on. In these situations, it’s best to outsource that kind of work to experts—people who are self-professed grammar nerds who love tweaking and honing the English language to make it as effective as it can be.

Here at English Outsourced, we enhance the written content in your business and make it shine—be it blog articles, sales copy, contracts, social media posts, email campaigns—anything, really! We specialize in working with business owners who speak English as a second language. To discover how English Outsourced can help your business tarting today, click here!