Sentence Rhythm Analyzer
Why a draft with nothing wrong with it still reads flat.
- 100% success
Tool input
Overview
About this tool
Measures variation rather than level: the spread of sentence lengths, the longest run of sentences in the same band, and every sentence past the point where a reader is holding too much at once. An average cannot see monotony — a text of all fifteen-word sentences and one alternating five and twenty-five have the same one — which is why the average is not the headline number here.
Instructions
How to use it
Paste a few paragraphs and say what they are. A script read aloud is judged harder than a blog post, because a listener cannot re-read.
The histogram before the numbers
One bar per length band. A single tall bar is the drone; several bars is a pulse. You can see which one you have got before reading a single figure, which is the correct order to look at a distribution in.
Runs are the finding an average hides
Four or five sentences in a row in the same length band is a stretch where nothing changes, and a reader feels it as slowing down. The tool quotes the first and last sentence of each run so you can find it.
Questions
Frequently asked
What is a good average sentence length?
The average is the wrong question, and it is the one statistic that cannot detect the problem. A text of all fifteen-word sentences and a text alternating five and twenty-five have identical averages and read nothing alike.
How do I fix writing that reads flat?
Usually one short sentence — three or four words — after the longest one you have. Once, not everywhere. A short sentence is the only punctuation that changes speed.
Are long sentences bad?
No. They carry emphasis precisely because they are unusual, which is why a draft where most sentences are long has lost the ability to emphasise anything.
How much text does this need?
Six sentences before the numbers mean much, and a few paragraphs before a rhythm exists to measure. It says so when there is not enough.
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