Sometimes modifiers add to a sentence's length and cause the writer to extend sentences unnecessarily . Weak This ad would be more striking if the background was red in color . Revised This ad would be more striking with a red background. This seemingly simple decision to avoid redundancy actually adds considerably to the clarity of the sentence. Sometimes the simplest revisions can make the greatest difference, and the shorter a sentence is, the more it can say to a reader.
Short sentences are a definite asset in writing.
However, the excessive use of short sentence can have two drawbacks. It can lead to a choppy prose style, and it can lead to a writer's separating related ideas. Yet, to be sure that sentences state only one primary idea, we often find ourselves writing prose characterized by both problems. By using dependent clauses effectively, the writer can avoid this choppy style, keep related ideas together in the same sentence, and limit sentences to on primary idea. A dependent clause has a subject and verb, as does an independent clause.