Format and Length of Sentences
Aristotle states that the phrase must be in the form of "of a length that allows it to be read in one sitting:' George Campbell (1776), in his Philosophy of Rhetoric, warns against overly convoluted sentences, such as those with numerous layers of embedding or lengthy parenthetical additions. Aside from big phrases, he also chastises Bolingbroke and Swift, whose pictures are both sixteen lines and fourteen lines long. Although Hugh Blair agrees that "long periods of silence overload the reader's ear," he also warns against over-brevity, in his lectures on rhetoric and belles lettres (1783) "sense is split and broken, the connection of thought is weakened, and the memory is burdened by presenting to it a long succession of minute objects:
Her preference is for long and short fencing, but she like to mix it up. Writing should be as simple as possible, and this covers both the construction of the piece and the concept behind it. However, the plain aesthetic is neither drab nor overly embellished; rather, it is somewhere in between. A naturalness of expression that opposes not adornment, but the manipulated use of ornament, is also present. By contrast to modern writers, naturalists such as Shakespeare and Milton are better attuned to the natural world, according to Blair. This natural style may be seen in modern artists like Addison, according to Blair "We find nothing forced or restrained in his manner; only wonderful elegance and great ease and simplicity!' We see no signs of labor or affectation in his manner.
A study by John Earle (1890) shows that the length of sentences varies by language, but that English sentences are both simpler and shorter than Latin sentences, despite the fact that English sentences are more likely to tie coordinated clause together. When it comes to writing, Earle claims that the first English writers used a mixture of Latinate and English kinds "the one a product of their academic study, and the other a gift from Mother Nature!' However, he thinks that Latin's "foreign structures" are incompatible with contemporary prose. Earle quotes a twenty-line Ruskin sentence to demonstrate why modern English sentences are better.
Unlike his predecessors, Earle has a preference for an unfussy approach to painting rather than one that is overtly staged. Similarly, he emphasizes the importance of originality in style, and he goes a step further by comparing it to horticulture. Repotting already-blooming flowers does not constitute excellent gardening practice. This means that in order to "write with anything worthy to be termed style," one needs to "first grow concepts that are worth transmitting, and then he must deliver them in his own natural language."
