How long should a sentence be?

A long sentence is called a “Period”. This is a picture of Edward Gibbon who wrote volumes on the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. He adored very long sentences, some of which went on for pages.

Here is another long sentence with just one full stop. Please read it. It is adapted from a real comment on a real blog.

I am waiting for the so called green tv debate just to see where we are, although my favourite recent quote "we get that there are no jobs on a dead planet" perhaps seems a little extreme for some, (even though we should have got going in the 1970s oil crisis), all of which brings me to ask whether it is really all just about green energy, and furthermore it also prompts me to reply that the energy transition is important but so is cutting pollution, particularly in rivers, bodies of water and so on; and let me add that I am not too sure that the truth about both hydrogen production and transport has been thought through, and that goes for recycling solar pv as well as for batteries, all of which, nevertheless, pales into comparison when we come to Retro fitting some housing with insulation since we can heat modern housing designs electrically.

Well, what was that all about?

I adapted it myself and read it several times too and all I can remember is a load of jumbled thoughts strung together with words like “which”, “nevertheless” and cleverly placed semi-colons and commas.

Keep it short.

But if you keep it too short, you cannot make an argument.

“Tell me, do you plan, Mr Corbyn, to stamp out all racism in the Labour Party?”

“Of course.”

“Are you going, Mr Johnson, to make Britain Carbon neutral by 2050?”

“Yes.”

So you look as if you are fibbing.

As with everything, do it in moderation.

Except in short stories where you have to shoot out the sentences like bullets.

A Level students only

For your essays, you are often bound to write just five paragraphs - three in the middle and a start and a finish. If you keep the paragraphs, on a sheet of A4 down to about ten to fifteen lines, you are doing it right. That is in handwriting of course. Perhaps three or four sentences in each paragraph - except the start and finish which should both be short and punchy.

I am uncomfortable, as an English man, using the word Period. However, in USA it simply means a full stop!
Remember - all rules are there for the guidance of fools and the advice of wise men.