Dr. King: The Power of Short Sentences

Dr. King told stories.  Stories are still the most powerful way to keep hearers (and readers) motivated.  We can study story techniques when a speech is reduced to print.
Written down, a good story breaks into paragraphs.  And many of Dr. King's paragraphs began with short sentences.  Click on that link, and look at a 45-paragraph speech in which 25 paragraph-starting sentences are 15 words or less!

Eighteen are extremely short:

1. You remember it started in America in 1619.
2. And that seems to be the long story of history.
3. There is something in the soul that cries out for freedom.
4. And so these people got tired.
5. "I want to go back home."
6. So that day finally came.
7. Wednesday morning the official opening of Parliament was held.
8. There is a great day ahead.
9. So don’t go out this morning with any illusions.
10. It says to us another thing.
11. The aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community.
12. There’s another thing that Ghana reminds us.
13. And that’s the way it goes.
14. The road to freedom is a difficult, hard road.
15. Then I remember, we went on over to Westminster Abbey.
16. I thought of many things.
17. But something else came to my mind.
18. Moses might not get to see Canaan but his children will see it.

From the short opening sentence, King unfolds a bit of each of his interwoven stories. Then he often ends the paragraph with another relatively short sentence.

Easy to listen to.  Easy to read.  Powerful. 

My dissertation adviser, who had to read my writing, once parodied my style; he composed and sent me a 68-word sentence with semicolons, colons, commas and a dash.  So I need this lesson from Dr. King more than perhaps anyone else.  This year I pledge to try and shorten at least my topic sentences!