# Worst. Sentence. Ever. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 13, 2003, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sentence-ever/168366 "2003-04-13T01:14:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sentence-ever/168366/1 "2003-04-13T01:14:39Z")
I wrote: > [@](#): > > I think that as long as the black communities there see a steady improvement in their lives, and see the growth of a black middle-class, that SA has a great chance to minimise the violence in the future derived from the aparteid policies. Aaaaah. Has anyone else ever written an overlong sentence that capered and cavorted without ever seeming to come to a conclusion and, in the end, even started to cause confusion about what was even meant by it in the first place, or known someone who has? ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sentence-ever/168366/2 "2003-04-13T01:16:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Punoqllads \* > \*\*Has anyone else ever written an overlong sentence that capered and cavorted without ever seeming to come to a conclusion and, in the end, even started to cause confusion about what was even meant by it in the first place, or known someone who has? \*\* I have now. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sentence-ever/168366/3 "2003-04-13T01:16:21Z")
I’m in university. What do you think? Poor written expression is _de rigueur_. Well, not if you’re a student, but if you’re a tenured world-famous professor it seems to abruptly become mandatory for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![Blackeyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f6c823/32.png) [@Blackeyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackeyes)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sentence-ever/168366/4 "2003-04-13T03:00:49Z")
My brother will have entire run-on sentences that will end suddenly without so much as a hint of what the predicate would have been. Oh, and the way his voice is when he ends them makes you think he’s only pausing in the middle of a sentence rather than ending them. Schmuck. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sentence-ever/168366/5 "2003-04-13T06:38:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Punoqllads \* > … Has anyone else ever written an overlong sentence that capered and cavorted without ever seeming to come to a conclusion and, in the end, even started to cause confusion about what was even meant by it in the first place, or known someone who has? No, but please show up at the Sacramento dopefest so we can thrash you for it anyway. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sentence-ever/168366/6 "2003-04-13T07:03:12Z")
I have, at certain times throughout my life, written, in a somewhat obfuscated fashion, and to my fevered chagrin, sentences, which while syntactically valid, are in fact (as a matter of my own and my colleague’s opinions) far too long, but not on purpose. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sentence-ever/168366/7 "2003-04-13T08:13:17Z")
Man, you guys have it easy. I just had to digest a six page essay by MM Bahktin, who decided to make some completely loopy point about deep linguistic theory by forsaking complete sentences. It was six pages of really dense serious theory that read like a prose poem written by hallucinating person picking words at random out from a language theory text and adding a lot in the translation. ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-sentence-ever/168366/8 "2003-04-18T02:04:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zenster \* > No, but please show up at the Sacramento dopefest so we can thrash you for it anyway. Well, if _someone_ would mention when and where it is, or at least link to where said info is, maybe I could be enticed.