Cheatsheet: build a sentence

We cannot separate the content of a sentence from its form, its meaning, its style

For travelers: “Pay attention to the punches, and the pounds take care of themselves”

For writers: “Pay attention to the sentences, and most other writing problems take care of themselves”

Readers and value

Clear, concise, comprehensible, sentences that mean something to them.

“What’s important to my Reader?” not just, “What will get his attention”. The answer, the value, becomes the main point of the sentence

Main point and peripheral Info

Mindset of all the distinct pieces of information in the sentence

Don’t cram too much

Consider what you can do without

Phrases

Look for the headword

Modifiers

Attached to the correct element of the sentence

Relative Clauses

  • An adjective with a subject and a word

  • Headed by a relative pronoun

  • Tells us something about the antecedent

  • Squeeze information from sentences into an adjective. Good - but when fits

Adverbial

  • Legit way to modify the target constiteuent

  • Add info that does not derived from the modified itself

  • Seek first for specific verb that conveys the meaning directly

Time

Associate time elements with specific action

Tense, aspect of future

Correct verb from

Fill in the coordination blanks

Spot where the reader has to fill in the coordination blanks. Find relations instead of never ending “and” which is tiering (“and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow”). Relations however put cognitive load

Infinitive phrases

  • Intention

  • Purpose

  • Also can reduce clauses

Finiteness

Most declarative sentences should have a clearly identifiable finite clause carrying the main assertion. Finite clause that advances the discourse, while non-finite clauses package supporting information.

  • Finite clause: Main assertion; highest discourse prominence

  • To-infinitival: Projected or intended event | Gerund-participial | Activity or process viewed as an entity or circumstance | | Past-participial | State or result used descriptively | | Bare infinitival | Event integrated into another verbal construction | | Verbless | Contextual frame with minimal independent prominence |

Prepositions

  • Make relationships more specific between and among sentence parts,

  • Establish points of reference for readers, like road signs on a highway.

  • ???? See the writers option ????How, why, when, where, and indicate such adverbial concepts as manner, reason, likeness, and condition

  • Substitutes clause can be more concise

  • Clarify (substitute coordination)

  • Pairs imply balanced opposites or complete coverage of a subject (from..to)

  • Strengthen a series relationship (with x, with y, with z)

  • Heighten relationship between sentences

  • “The writers options” suggests to think about prepositional phrases and infinitive phrases together, same class of options

When you tell about your job at the Taco Bell near the mall outside of town, argue for or against prayer in public school, brag that your new computer can play chess like a master, or explain how scientists turn saltwater into fuel by a new chemical process—you’re using prepositions.

Accurate Meaning

  • Grammatical Meaning

  • Lexical Meaning

  • Grammatical signals

Concise

  • Omit words already mentioned earlier in the paragraph/sentence (unless repetition intended)

  • Omit needless words

  • Gerund, verbal nouns

  • Noun substitutions

  • Can repeat only relevant part of the subject

Some lawyers are arrogant, some simply reserved. (Only “some” is repeated)

Clause type by grammatical form

  • Declarative

  • Imperative

  • Interrogative

  • Exclamative

Options

  • Info package, construction

  • Inverted

  • Complex (one or more subordinates)

  • Subordinate - for what?

  • Parenthetical attribution

  • Canonical or non-canonical?

  • Affirmative (positive declarative)?

  • Conditional

Irrealis realization

  • Preterite → remoteness

  • Modal auxiliary → modal nuance

  • Lexical semantics → mood-like nuance

  • Perfect → past orientation (often yielding past counterfactuals)

  • Aspect → temporal structure

  • Be / been → state, location, passive, or progressive situation type

English driven reasoning patterns

  • Inference

  • Evidence Attribution

  • Qualification

  • Distinction

  • Definition

  • Reframing

  • Analytical Decomposition

  • Counterargument & Concession

  • Evaluation

  • Generalization

ESL (Zinisser)

  • Short is better than long.

  • Simple is good. (Louder)

  • Long Latin nouns are the enemy.

  • Anglo-Saxon active verbs are your best friend.

  • One thought per sentence.