6. We add energy
With short sentences. (Like this).
We’re passionate about what we do – but what we do is serious. So we need to get across our passion and excitement while still sounding credible.
That’s where pace comes in. By varying the rhythm of our writing – and particularly by using short sentences – we can give our writing a sense of energy, urgency and momentum.
Try this
- Be sincere: Don’t force it. Use it when it feels genuine.
- Start punchy: It often works well in opening paragraphs.
- Check it: Read out loud to see how it comes across
Don’t be tempted to ‘cheat’ and use exclamation marks as a ‘quick’ way to add energy! It’s too much!
Example
Soil is life
Life on earth depends on healthy soil: to grow almost all our food, many of our fibers – and increasingly, our biofuels too. But soil is non-renewable. If it gets stripped of its goodness, nothing will grow.
What’s going on?
This is an extract talking about how critical soil is to life on earth. It uses short sentences to emphasize this message – disrupting the flow of the first descriptive sentence with a short, sharp shock of the sentence in the middle: ‘But soil is non-renewable’.