Sentence Counter

Sentence length is the single biggest lever on how difficult writing feels. Both of the Flesch formulas — used by the readability checker, by Microsoft Word and by the US Navy for technical manuals — take average sentence length as one of only two inputs. Shortening sentences lowers the reading level more reliably than swapping long words for short ones.

It also controls rhythm. A paragraph of nine-word sentences is exhausting in a different way from a paragraph of forty-word sentences. Good prose varies: a long sentence that builds, a short one that lands.

• Find the “and” or “which” doing the most work and put a full stop there.
• Cut the wind-up. “It is important to note that” is almost always deletable.
• Split a list out into its own sentence, or into actual bullet points.
• Move the subject and verb closer to the start, then let the detail follow.

The tool lists your longest sentences with their word counts, so you can work down the list rather than reading everything again looking for problems.