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23Vary Your Sentence Length

Sentences that are all one length can be monotonous. They have no variety, and are often boring. They tend to make the reader fall asleep. You want to avoid writing sentences like this. If you do, you run the risk of being dull.

Can you see this from the examples we just used?

The liveliest e-mails include a variety of sentence lengths. Some are short; some are longer. By varying the length of your e-mail sentences, you create a more interesting tempo and add impact to your message. Here are a few things to keep in mind when crafting your sentences.

Short sentences are more expressive and energetic in nature than long sentences, and work well for presenting concise thoughts or ideas. For example:

• The network is down ...