Category Archives: Sentence structure
Clarifying What’s Passive
Instruction manuals and conference workshop teachers say to avoid passive voice, and there’s a good reason to do so, but in order to follow that bit of advice, we need to have a clear idea what we’re talking about. As … Continue reading
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Parallel Construction
Writing can be a lot more like math than first meets the eye, especially in regard to sentence structure. Think of coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or), for instance, like plus signs. If you studied algebra, you’ll recall that different variables … Continue reading
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Altering Sentence Structure, Part 3
Nearly a year ago I did a short series of posts on sentence structure. I want to revisit this subject because, quite frankly, I see in my editing, manuscripts heavily dependent upon one particular construction or the other, whatever the … Continue reading
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Altering Sentence Structure, Part 2
Including fragments is only one way a writer can create sentence structure variety. Another is to begin sentences with something other than their subjects (or the attending adjectives). Possible sentence openers include prepositional phrases (e.g. in the house), participial (words … Continue reading
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Altering Sentence Structure, Part 1
You probably remember from high school English that there are three basic types of sentences: simple, compound, and complex. Of course, there is the hybrid, compound-complex, so I guess that makes four types. When I say writers should vary sentence … Continue reading
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Sentence Structure
Show, don’t tell. How many times does a writer hear that advice? And as a corollary, use the active voice, not the passive. The idea is, especially in this fast-paced society, readers want action—immediate, on-stage, before-your-eyes action. The problem this … Continue reading
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