Tips for writing good sentences

Readers

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

“What’s important to my Reader?” not just, “What will get his attention”

Main Point

The subject and its action should be clear and close.

Use non-verb verbal only when the action is the focal point

Unless intentional, put the sentence’s main point as soon as possible. Avoid cognitive load. Don’t ask the user to “Stay Put.”

“Stay put” like “Given…” is ok, provided the context was built on the previous sentences, and is clear by now

However, sometime it’s good to hint the reader what next: “Before x. After y”. On “before”, the reader anticipates what comes after

The Reader knows a lot. Don’t waste time to iterate

Meaningful, tangible way. Don’t use formal or enterprise language

The main info should not be slipped as background or context (relative, subordinate)

Single idea or thought

Make sure that subordinates and adjuncts are not part of the main point. Anything that can be dropped grammatically should not include the main point

What is the head word in each clause or phrase?

What is the predicate?

Is there predicative adjunct (here, stupid, part of the predicate of them all):\

“At breakfast on Thursday she bored them all stupid with flying tips she’d gotten out of a library book called Quidditch Through the Ages.”

“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

The manner should be a legit way to modify the modified

The manner should 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

Infinitive phrases

  • Intention

  • Purpose

  • Also can reduce clauses

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

Original:\

Hershey’s once called its candy bar the “Great American Chocolate Bar.” And Hershey, Pennsylvania, may just be the Great American Small Town. It has clean, tree-lined streets, and it has magnificent gardens. You can also find museums and a seventy-six-acre amusement park, not to mention a school for underprivileged children. The aroma from the chocolate factory is pervasive. For this reason, there is no pollution to smell. Founded by candy magnate Milton Snavely Hershey, the little paradise reportedly has no jail. It does not have poverty. It has a definite surplus of chocolate. For sure.

Edited:\

Hershey’s once called its candy bar the “Great American Chocolate Bar.” And Hershey, Pennsylvania, may just be the Great American Small Town. Not only it has clean, tree-lined streets, but it also magnificent gardens. You can also find museums and a seventy-six-acre amusement park, not to mention a school for underprivileged children. Because the aroma from the chocolate factory is pervasive. For this reason, there is no pollution to smell. Founded by candy magnate Milton Snavely Hershey, the little paradise reportedly has no jail. It does not have poverty. It has a definite surplus of chocolate. For sure.

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)

Types

  • Declarative

  • Imperative

  • Interrogative

  • Inverted

  • Complex

  • Compound

Subordinate (conditional) Parenthetical attribution