While reading Ragtime, I've noticed that Doctorow uses a combination of very short and very long sentences. While the prose seems choppy and disconnected at times, it reflects what's going on in the plot and conveys emotions. For example, on page 51, there are two sentences that particularly stand out as being very short or very long. "It was an important event." Here Doctorow uses a punchy short sentence to deliver an important and powerful fact. The length reflects the fact making it seem more real and powerful. A sentence later, Doctorow uses a particularly long sentence. "Carefully Tateh explained that although he was unalterably opposed to Goldman, she being an anarchist and be a socialist, he had great respect for her personal courage and integrity; and that he had therefore agreed that some sort of temporary accord between the socialists and the anarchists was advisable, if only for the evening, because the funds raised for the occasion would go to sup...