Vary your sentence length

Dear Legal Writer, Some experts advise, “Keep most sentences short.”

Others say, “Aim for about 14 words per sentence.”

Others say, “Aim for an average of 20 words.”

And still others propose, “Aim 26 words or less.”

✏️ TBH, I find all that advice useless.

To me, the LAST thing anyone should aim for is any “ideal” word count.

Now, to be fair, the experts do also add that we should strive to vary our sentence length, yet somehow that advice gets buried as an afterthought.

Instead, variability should be the FIRST thing writers think about.

And so, yes, DO aim for shorter sentences than you’re used to writing.

But DON’T ever aim for 14, or 20, or 26 words.

Instead, aim for constant variability.

And when it comes to that, no one does it better than Gary Provost (quote from “100 Ways to Improve Your Writing”). ⤵️

Fondly,
Amanda

#Dear1L