How to Split and Simplify Your Complex Sentences
© 2009 Ugur Akinci
Here is a sure-fire method to split your long sentences into shorter and more easily understandable ones:
Split your sentences at conjunctions like “and”, “or”, “while”, “however”, “although” etc. Those are the connection points where one clause is linked to another. By breaking your clauses apart you can develop a simpler prose style that is read easier and retained more.
For example:
“The software-based flight control system is thoroughly tested in the secure facility F67-B while the aircraft itself is tested repeatedly in the air by being exposed to weather conditions specified in Doc 34B-5 and using Cranbolton methodology despite the fact that no amount of testing can prepare for all eventualities to arise in real-life conditions.”
Conjunctions like “while”, “and”, “despite” are good markers for splitting this compound sentence into a set of simpler ones.
Here is one possible solution:
“The software-based flight control system is thoroughly tested in the secure facility F67-B. The aircraft itself is tested repeatedly in the air by using Cranbolton methodology. During these tests the aircraft is exposed to weather conditions specified in Doc 34B-5. However, no amount of testing can of course prepare us for all real-life emergencies.”
May your ideas be rich but your sentences be simple.
That’s good advice, Ugur. However, you should still vary the length of your sentences to avoid what we call singsong or choppy prose. If all of the sentences are short, the reader will likely find it harder to concentrate as he or she reads.
In your example, I might try combining the middle two sentences like this: “The software-based flight control system is thoroughly tested in the secure facility F67-B. The aircraft itself is tested repeatedly in the air by using Cranbolton methodology, during which the aircraft is exposed to weather conditions specified in Doc 34B-5. However, no amount of testing can of course prepare us for all real-life emergencies.”