Rely heavily on short sentences and even fragments. Long complex sentences, especially when filled with abstract nouns slow the reader and even confuse him or her. Break up these sentences. Or balance them with short ones.
Short sentences work because reading is a limited channel. Long sentences stacked with abstract nouns force the mind to hold too many unresolved parts at once — clauses, qualifiers, nested ideas — until meaning collapses under its own weight. A fragment, by contrast, lands. It delivers one idea, cleanly, before moving on.
Take this: "The committee's ongoing deliberation regarding the implementation of the proposed policy changes continued without resolution." Trade it for: "The committee argued. Nothing got decided." Same facts. Half the effort.
The caution: fragments are seasoning, not the meal. A page of nothing but short, punchy sentences starts to feel like a drumbeat with no melody — flat, exhausting, oddly monotonous. Vary the rhythm. Let a longer sentence breathe once the short ones have done their work.
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