Students sometimes
wonder what is the difference between writing which receives a mark of “A” and
that which receives only a “B.” The
difference can usually be summed up in 12 words: variety, conciseness, clarity
and completeness, sentence types, sentence variety, and sentence combining.
è
VARIETY
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Varying the kinds of sentences you use can make your
writing lively and distinctive.
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If you experiment with sentence structure, you
increase the chance of readers’ paying attention to what you write.
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To avoid the choppiness produced by a series of short
sentences, you can lengthen sentences by:
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Subordination
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Coordination
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(Sometimes abrupt sentences may be used for special
effects.)
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Relying too heavily on beginning with a subject can
make your writing monotonous; use alternative beginnings:
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Begin with an adverb
(e.g.
suddenly,…)
§
Begin with a prepositional phrase
(e.g. out
of necessity,…)
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Begin with a transition
(e.g. first, then, furthermore,
etc.)
§
Remember that when you are experimenting with sentence
structure, subordination is as important as coordination.
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CONCISENESS:
Avoiding
Wordiness and Needless Repetition
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Unnecessary words or phrases distract readers and
should be omitted.
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Repetition is a sign of inefficiency.
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Avoid:
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Redundancy
(repeating
for no good reason)
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Unnecessary, inexact words
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Combining sentences or simplifying phrases can
eliminate needless words.
§
Use pronouns to avoid needlessly repeating a noun or
using clumsy synonyms.
è CLARITY
AND COMPLETENESS
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Words that are often omitted in speech are often
needed in writing to make the meaning clear.
(e.g. We better study hardàWe had better study hard)
è SENTENCE
TYPES
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Simple Sentence: One main clause: Contains one
subject, one verb, and expresses a complete thought
(Note: The subject and/or the
verb can be compound)
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Compound Sentence: Contains two or more
main clauses and no subordinate clauses
(Note: These are connected by a
semicolon or a comma + coordinate conjunction. They connect main clauses which
should be related to each other logically.)
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Complex Sentence: Has one main clause and
one or more subordinate clauses.
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Compound-Complex Sentence:
Contains two or more main clauses and one or more subordinate clauses.
è SENTENCE
VARIETY
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Good writing contains a variety of sentence structures
and types.
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Another way to improve sentence structure is by the
use of parallelism. (In a series, nouns should be balanced with nouns, verbs
with verbs, adjectives with adjectives, etc.)
è SENTENCE
COMBINING
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Sentence combining contributes to a smooth flow of
sentences and avoids choppiness that results from a string of main clauses
(machine gun effect).
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Avoid choppiness and strung-out compound sentences by:
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Subordinating
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Using compound
verbs
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Using phrases
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Rewriting one sentence into two or more sentences