A while ago I asked a friend why short sentences were so pleasing to read and write. He had no answers, but agreed that brevity is its own reward. Some (though I can find no reference to it) suggest that technological developments have changed and simplified sentence structure by allowing writers to write and revise freely, while typewriters and pens required forethought and concentration to avoid scribbling out unwanted, half-formed sentences.
David Rothman is considering gender issues in sentence length. Rothman’s interest is in ebooks, and now he’s wondering about an apparent gender split among those who read them. Does the following generalization have any bearing?
Original e-books often have short sentences and short paragraphs to compensate for the very real failings of typical hardware.
He asks because a recent On The Media featured a story about the writing differences of men and women.
Deborah Tannen, an expert in gender and linguistics, who notes that the sentences in men’s magazines tend to be shorter than in women’s — even when the writers are female. Clearly the issue isn’t just that typical men write with shorter sentences; it’s also that they would seem to enjoy reading them. Part of this could be men’s enjoyment of action-oriented writing, where shorter sentences are better. But could other factors be at work as well?
Read Rothman’s full post for more details and lots more links.
Posted April 6, 2005 by Casey Bisson
Categories: Books, Movies, Music. .
1 Comment(s)
Comments RSS
TrackBack Identifier URI
User contributed tags for this post:
Matters of Size torrent (321) - matters of size rapidshare (91) - matter of size torrent (70) - does size matter video (52) - matters of size dvd torrent (49) - matter of size rapidshare (41) - does size matter to women (31) - does size matter (31) - matters of size megaupload (27) - does pennis size matter (20) - food matters torrent (19) - torrent matters of size (17) - DEBORAH TANNEN TORRENT (16) - food matters rapidshare (13) - Matters of Size dvd (13) - A Matter of Size 2 torrent (11) - size matters torrent (11) - matter of size dvd (11) - Matters of Size dvd rapidshare (8) - matters of size video (7) - does size matter to a woman (7) - a matter of size video (7) - Food Matters the Film torrent (7) - matter of size dvd torrent (7) - Matters of Size Video torrent (7) - Matters of Size torrents (6) - Deborah Tannen rapidshare (6) - does length matter (6) - a matter of size torrent (6) - does size matter blog (6) - torrent deborah tannen (6) - Google Earth Pro size (6) - Matters of Size download (5) - does size matter videos (5) - matter of size megaupload (5) - a matter of size rapidshare (5) - A Matter of Size 2 rapidshare (5) - rapidshare Matters of size (4) - megaupload matters of size (4) - size matters girl talk (4) - matters of size blog (4) - does size matter to woman (4) - women ???? (4) - foodmatters torrent (4) - matters of size (4) - does size matter wiki (4) - size does matter rapidshare (4) - size does matter torrent (4) - matterofsize.com/blog (4) - why does size matter to women (3) - mattersofsize dvd torrent (3) - cache uMhjr7ls06MJ maisonbisson com blog post 10524 mat (3) - (???? women) (3) - Matter of Size 2 (3) - deborah tannen torrents (3) - funny sentences (3) - video does size matter (3) - does pens size matter (3) - food matters bittorrent (3) - megaupload matter of size (3) - seexy men (3) - matters of size dvd megaupload (3) - a matter of size megaupload (3) - size matters 3 torrent (3) - does pennis size matter? (3) - matter of size video (3) - size matters rapidshare (3) - does the size of pennis matter (3) - A Matter of Size 2 (2) - does size matter for women (2) - A Matter of Size (2) - pennis size matter (2) - mattersofsize rapidshare (2) - Size Matters 3 (2) - does size matters? video (2) - does size matter womens blog (2) - woman ???? (2) - seexy woman (2) - download matters of size dvd (2) - food matters megaupload (2) - girl talk: does size matter? (2) - size does matter wiki (2) - Deborah Tannen megaupload.com (2) - matter of size torrents (2) - articles about Does size matter to a woman (2) - matters of size bittorrent (2) - food matters movie torrent (2) - a matter of size 2 dvd (2) - rapidshare matter of size (2) - matters of size dvd rapid (2) - women at work megaupload (2) - matter of size dvd rapidshare (2) - size.com (2) - how much does size matter (2) - food.matters torrent (2) - does women size matters to men (2) - Does Size Matter funny (2) - DOES A women like a size (2) - womens blog-size matters (2) - gender issues funny sentences (2) - does size matter womens answers (2) - does the size matter video (2) - video blog does size matter (2) - what size does men like (2) - women s blog does size matter (2) - size matter (2) - Action oriented writing (2) - video size matter (2) - does size matter for women and men (2) - Size matter funny (2) - SELECT option value FROM wp options WHERE option name s (2) - shorter sentences are better (2) - does size matter By women (2) - does men looks matter (2) - does size matter comments (2) - men blog size (2) - a matter of size download movie (2) - MattersofSize megaupload (2) - erth s size (2) - Matter of Size 2 torrent (2) - Wardriving rig (2) - girls talk about pennis size (1) - does sizw matters torrents (1) - does size of pennis matter? (1) - matters of size rapidshare links (1) - Matters of size Video megaupload (1) - download Matters.Of.Size with rapidshare links (1) - mens seexy (1) - does size of pennis matter (1) - does the pennis long does any matter? (1) - matter of size megaup (1) - matters size dvd torrent (1) - matters of size dvd megaupload.com (1) - mattersofsize free full dvd (1) - pens size women on (1) - mattersofsize gigasize (1) - SIZE OF MATTERS RAPIDSHARE (1) - Dvd Matters of Size torrent (1) - matter of size hack (1) - women size matter (1) -
“Part of this could be men’s enjoyment of action-oriented writing, where shorter sentences are better.”
That is utterly silly. it strikes me as funny that if I said something like “women like to shop because they are materialistic” I’d be shot for being sexist (and rightfully so), but somehow the implication that men need action is entirely okay. I personally like a good long sentence just as much as I like a short one.
If anything I’d look at the fact that men’s magazines aren’t geared towards the literary as much as they are geared towards people who don’t necessarily enjoy reading.