Beginning feature writers tend to think they'll have the greatest impact on their readers by producing long, verbose sentences. It's almost as if they want to pummel their readers into submission by dumping a mountain of words on them.

Truth is, a short sentence or paragraph can often make a much bigger impression. Indeed, a great way to add impact to your writing is to emphasize certain sentences and paragraphs by making them shorter.

Here's an example by Bill Lyon, a legendary sports columnist in Philadelphia. In this piece from a few years ago he writes about whether the Philadelphia Eagles should trade backup quarterback Kevin Kolb.

There are some things you suspect.

There are some things you're sure about.

And there are some things you're sure about but wish you weren't.

This is one of those: The Eagles are going to shed themselves of Kevin Kolb.

They will regret it. Often. And for a very long time. Because this is the tried and truest thing in all of professional football: The most important player is the quarterback, and the second most important player is his backup.

So here's the bluntest way to put it, keep Kevin Kolb.

See how Lyon adds impact to the start of this column by using short, one-sentence paragraphs. Right away he establishes a certain rhythm and tone to the piece, and by making each sentence a separate paragraph it adds drama to the writing and emphasizes the importance of each sentence.

A short, one-sentence paragraph also forces the reader to pause and linger over that single sentence.

Note that Lyon doesn't overuse this technique. The fifth paragraph of his column, as you can see, is longer than the rest. It's important to vary the length of both sentences and paragraphs to avoid monotony in your writing.

Lyon does this again in the final two paragraphs of this column:

The Birds have been clutching the Kevin Kolb "Get Out of Jail Free" card to their heaving bosom for years. Now, at last, they seem hell bent on spending it.

One final thought: Don't.

Again, you see how Lyon alternates between longer sentences and paragraphs and shorter ones. And invariably, it's the shorter sentence - One final thought: Don't - that has the most impact.

One other thing you may have noticed - Lyon starts and ends his column using this short-sentence technique. That's because he knows it's an effective way to draw readers into the story, and then to send them out with a bang at the end.

Gene Weingarten, a Washington Post columnist and feature writer, is another master of the short-sentence technique. He won the first of his two Pulitzer prizes in 2008 for the story "Pearls Before Breakfast," about an experiment in which renowned (and famous) violinist Joshua Bell played classical music in a Washington subway station and was barely noticed.

Weingarten's story basically alternatives between thick, wordy paragraphs followed by passages like these:

When Bell was asked if he'd be willing to don street clothes and perform at rush hour, he said:

"Uh, a stunt?"

Well, yes. A stunt. Would he think it... unseemly?

Bell drained his cup.

"Sounds like fun," he said.

Again, the key is to not overuse this technique. If every sentence and paragraph in your story is short, it'll quickly become wearisome.

Weingarten knows this well, so the paragraph that follows the sequence above is a whopping 95 words, which is huge for a newspaper article.

But varying things up, between long and short, works well.

That's why it's been used by generations of writers, especially ones who produce feature stories.

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