15 NOVEMBER 1986, Page 28

Ends of sentences

Sir: Rather misleading. What Peregrine Worsthorne says (Diary, 1 November). About the length of sentences. As written by various journalists. Because full stops don't always mark the ends of sentences. Not nowadays. And there's another horrid thing vice-versa-wise, some writers use commas instead of full stops, it looks as though they're writing long sentences, they aren't really, neither lot knows what a sentence is. It plays hell with sentence- length statistics. Unless you use clause analysis. Which nobody learns any more. And you can see the result. Even in the Spectator. Sometimes.

John P. Harris

Lieuran-Cabrieres, 34800 Clermont l'Herault, France