Successful Ads: Recommended Sentence Length and Paragraphing

Sentence length and paragraphing in ad copying can be tricky but not impossible in order to ensure maximum returns for your business. Sentences which carry too many different ideas, even though they may be grammati­cally correct, are cumbersome and hard to follow.

Along with the construction of your sentences you need to consider their length. In advertising the general rule is to keep sentences short. You want to make an impact, which is difficult to achieve with long sentences. Having said that, a long succession of very short sentences, even if they do all carry a different idea, is boring, so you do need to vary the length.

If you find that you can't avoid a succession of short sentences (perhaps there are a number of benefits you want to bring out, and each is in the form of a short sentence), try using bullet points, or change the construction.

Suppose you have wool cardigans to sell. Your first draft copy might read. 'It comes in a wide range of colors. It is soft. It is stylish.' You could change it to: 'It is soft, stylish, and comes in a wide range of colors.' This is several ideas in one sentence, but it reads better than the original (another example of how the rules of advertising were made to be broken!). Alternatively, you could use bullet points:

• more colors

• more style

• more softness.

A third possibility is to turn the copy into an invitation:

See the ranges of colors.

Feel the softness.

Enjoy the admiration of your friends.

Which of these options you choose will depend on the style and tone you want to achieve. So what about paragraphing?

Paragraphing is also important to your structure. Any long body of unbroken text becomes difficult to read. This may not matter much in a complex academic textbook, but in an ad it will just kill interest. So do break up your copy into manageable paragraphs.

Just as each sentence should contain a single idea, so each paragraph should have a single theme or group of ideas - and each theme should be contained in a single paragraph. Once again, however, there will be occasions when you will break this rule. You need to maintain the reader's interest, so your paragraphs should be short. If you find that a particular paragraph is becoming too long, then you may need to break it up, even though each new paragraph may not cover a complete theme. You might also decide to form a paragraph from a single sentence, in order to give it emphasis.

As with sentences, however, variety is the key. A succession of short, single-sentence paragraphs can be as counter-productive as one long boring one. If you do have a lot of short, unrelated points to make, use bullet points. Copy needs to flow, and a lot of very short paragraphs interferes with that flow.