"Break It Up: Fragmenting for Clarity
"If the sentence exceeds 40 or at most 50 or so words and you can break it up, do so. Even though it is not feasible to state how long is too long in terms of the number of words in a sentence, a sentence that exceeds about 40 words is usually dangerous. Be sure that all the relevant content of each sentence can reasonably be retained by the reader as a coherent set of related ideas. If you have a problem remembering every aspect of the sentence, break up the sentence, even if this requires some repetition.
"Fragmenting for clarity consists of the use of defined terms, the elimination of parenthetical phrases and avoiding long sentences. Long sentences are imprecise and usually reflect muddled thinking. Once a sentence is fragmented, it often develops that there are a variety of meanings to the sentence, many of which may not be consistent with the intent of the drafter. In certain jurisdictions, it has been, in the past, a rule of statutory construction that punctuation was not to be considered in interpreting a statute. Until at least the middle of the last century, the practice in Pennsylvania had been to enact all legislation without punctuation. Punctuation was added by the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, who was responsible for the publication of the enrolled legislation.
"The division-fragmenting process may significantly increase the number of words required to express the concept and thus lengthen the document as a whole. This is not a significant price to pay for clarity. Understandably non-lawyers, and indeed many lawyers, abhor long legal documents. Nevertheless, if the choice is between brevity and clarity, the choice should be clarity unless your client is seeking ambiguities or confusion. This appears to be a reasonable cost to achieve the increased clarity one is seeking. Thus, in lieu of attaching a “provided that” at the end of a sentence that consists of a subsection of a document, divide the subsection into several clauses and include the proviso in a subsection introduced by the words:
The provisions of subsection [insert] above shall not apply if."