From Dickens to Trump: Why short sentences win online
Photo by Joshua Koblin on Unsplash and Gülfer ERGİN on Unsplash
Long ago, sentences were long
Charles Dickens could pack a paragraph into a single sentence. Writers of the 18th and 19th centuries seemed to compete on how many commas they could squeeze in. Readers expected it. They had the time — and the patience.
Today, short is powerful
Fast forward to now. Donald Trump built speeches at the level of an eight-year-old. Whatever you think of him, it worked. Simple sentences. Repetition. Punch. Everyone in the room understood.
News articles have followed the same path. Headlines are shorter. Sentences are snappier. We skim, scroll, and move on.
The reading age test
Most websites should be written for a reading age of an eight-year-old. That might sound insulting. It isn’t. It’s smart.
Research shows most adults prefer reading at that level. Not because they lack ability, but because life is busy. People want information they can absorb in seconds.
This isn’t about dumbing down. It’s about opening up. Simpler text makes your site more inclusive:
Easier for people with English as a second language.
Easier for people with lower literacy.
Easier for everyone scrolling on their phone between tasks.
Why short works
Short sentences cut through distractions. They’re easier to follow, harder to misinterpret, and they stick. That’s why politicians use them. That’s why journalists use them. And that’s why your website should too.
If your homepage reads like Dickens, your visitors won’t stay.
What this means for websites
Keep sentences under 20 words.
Use the occasional one-liner for impact.
Aim for child-level clarity with readability tools. eg The free Hemingway Editor
Break up text with headings and bullet points.
The goal isn’t to dumb down. It’s to reach more people, faster.
The bottom line
Society has shifted from Dickens’ winding prose to Trump’s blunt slogans. Short sentences win attention. They win comprehension. And online, they win your users.
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