9 How Do I Write Sentences?

Barbara delighted herself with her sentences. While others made it clear to Barbara that they deeply appreciated her writing, she had little idea whether anyone took such delight, equal to her own, in her sentences. Barbara would carefully craft and recraft each sentence, as if she was planting tender sprouts in the rich soil of a fertile garden. Barbara also had her favorite sentences. Some of her favorites were short, blunt, and entirely to the point. Yet others of her favorites wended their way leisurely forward, as if they were on a stroll down the beach or into a dark forest. If it were not for her little sentence friends, Barbara didn’t even think that she would like writing.

Sentences

Sentences are a writer’s basic tool to communicate the point of the writing. Words may be the most-basic communication unit, but a single word typically conveys little to nothing of the writing’s point. One-word essays or articles are exceedingly rare. A browser search suggests that one-word books don’t exist. The sentence is instead the writer’s means of communicating fully formed thoughts. A single sentence can lift or crush the reader’s mood. Single sentences have changed the course of history. Single sentences from literature have also cascaded down to us through the ages, carrying their blessings. Consider Shakespeare’s “To be, or not to be, that is the question,” Pope’s “To err is human; to forgive divine,” and Tennyson’s “Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” May you write many profound and classic sentences. The best sentences might break every rule. But following sentence conventions is necessary to a degree, and some sentence conventions are better or more necessary than others, as this chapter discusses. 

Words

Accept a word about words before more words about sentences. Words obviously form sentences. Your word choices mean a lot to the quality of your writing. Your first challenge is to ensure that you know the definitions of the words that you employ so that you can deploy them appropriately. A single misused word can ruin a writing. If you have any hesitancy over a word’s meaning, confirm its definition, which you can do either with an instant browser search or even, in some word-processing programs, with a right-click on the word and a choice from the pop-up menu. If you feel that you may be slightly misusing the word, or that a better word must be out there, then promptly look up synonyms with a browser search. Doing so freshens and expands your vocabulary. Pay attention to your word choice. Don’t use big or eccentric words simply to impress readers. You’ll instead frustrate them. But don’t hesitate to slightly challenge your readers to expand their own vocabulary. A new word or two in a writing can stir, tickle, and please a reader. 

Subject

As every barely competent writer already knows, sentences generally begin with a subject. Readers benefit from learning, right up front, the subject of the thought that a sentence is trying to convey. Hide the subject in one of your sentences, and a reader can easily lose your intended thread. Yet even competent writers can fall into lazy habits of hiding the subject. If, for instance, you find yourself frequently beginning sentences with there is, there are, it is, it was, or similarly vague constructs, you’re not helping the reader discern your sentences’ subjects. When, for instance, you begin a sentence with there are, you are asking your reader to hold an unspecified subject, yet to come, in some imaginary vacuum, and to what point? Rewrite the next sentence that you lazily begin with there are to instead promptly state the sentence’s subject. For example, instead of There are several reasons to respect your mother-in-law, try Several good grounds warrant respecting your mother-in-law or, if you prefer, Respecting your mother-in-law, although hard at times, makes great sense. Don’t conceal your sentence subjects in a cloud of obfuscation. Let your reader learn your sentence subjects right up front. Constantly strive for clear, impactful writing. 

Verbs

Sentence subjects generally act on things that follow in the sentence. Verbs describe that action. In that sense, every sentence is a microcosm of the causative world in which we live. Every sentence presumes that actors act upon things with a degree of efficacy. Like it or not, each sentence reflects a fundamentally purposive view of the world. Your verb choices should accurately reflect the quality and intentions of the sentence subject’s actions. If you wish to make your writing stronger, richer, more active, and more compelling, expand your range and depth of verb choices. Even in a relatively dry, analytical piece, a few keen choices of verbs can lend an engaging and adventurous quality to your writing. A miscreant student, for instance, may not just be due discipline but may also deserve, warrant, need, or have earned discipline. A fine cup of tea, for another example, may not just need a refill but may also compel or command a refill. Read an especially fun and raucous writer, like Clements (Twain) or Dickens, and you’ll find their rich use of entertaining verbs contributing to the adventurousness and delight of their writing. Expand your verb lexicon to enrich your writing. 

Object

Sentences generally end with their object. An object, as every competent writer already knows, receives the subject’s action that the verb describes. Sentences in that sense connect subjects with objects, again revealing the fundamentally relational, meaningful, purposive, and causative nature of the universe in which we live. Your role as a writer is to make every sentence remind the reader of the reader’s own meaningful, active, relational, and causative role in the universe. That personal reassurance is what a good sentence does when it clearly shows its well-identified subject relating to its clearly stated object, through a compelling action that carries purpose and intention. Every good sentence is a pat on the reader’s back that the reader, too, is meaningful, purposive, and efficacious. When your sentences instead disguise subjects, choose weak verbs, and leave off or conceal objects, you sow similar seeds of doubt in your reader. That’s why poor writing is so depressing, not just that it lacks technical expertise and solid craft but that it also conveys a malaise about the universe, like subjects, actions, and objects don’t quite have such dynamic relationship and effect. Don’t hide your sentences’ objects. Give your readers the confidence that they exist in a purposive universe. 

Passive

Consider the clearest example of poor writing that undermines the reader’s sense of purpose and efficacy. Skilled writers are generally aware of editors’ disdain for the use of passive language or passive voice. If you submit a writing sample in an effort to gain a writing assignment, and that sample includes your use of passive voice, you may well not get the assignment. Passive voice eliminates the sentence’s true subject, moves the object into the place of the subject, and substitutes a passive verbal phrase beginning with the verb to be for the active verb. Dinner was served late is an example of passive language. Who served the dinner late? The reader wouldn’t know and would instead have to guess. And that’s the problem with passive language: it removes and conceals the actor, leaving the reader to guess. To correct passive voice, name the actor, as in The dad served dinner late. Novice writers may insist that passive voice is necessary in at least some instances. It is not, at least not in writing. As speakers, we tend to use passive voice when not wishing to confront a listener with the listener’s role in the asserted action. But even then, the indirection that passive voice reflects isn’t truly any more respectful or gentle than saying what you mean straight up front. Passive voice is instead simply passive-aggressive. Avoid passive voice, and your writing will be stronger, clearer, and more respectful. 

Length

Sentence length is another important consideration for writers. Readers get lost in overlong sentences. Lower-level readers can especially need shorter, declarative sentences. Know the reading level of the readers for whom you write. The average reading level of an American reader is between the eighth and ninth grades. Don’t unnecessarily challenge your readers with long, compound sentences with multiple clauses and prepositional phrases. When you realize that you’ve just crafted an especially long sentence, go back and break it up. You can measure your writing’s readability level by copying a chunk of it into a readability app located from your web browser. Readability apps use both word length or difficulty and average sentence length to measure reading level. Check your writing to see if you are writing well above your readers’ level. A little above may be alright, to challenge and inform your readers. But consistently writing well above reading level is unfair to your readers. Shorten your sentence length to make your writing more readable. 

Varying

Varying the length of your sentences can also help your writing. Varying sentence length can alternately challenge and relieve your reader, first with a long sentence and then with a short one. Short sentences provide mental breaks. Longer sentences force the reader to pay attention, concentrate, and process at a deeper level to withdraw the sentence’s meaning. Longer sentences can also convey greater meaning, for instance by using prepositional phrases to limit, specify, or qualify the sentence’s primary declaration. You may be able to wrap several thoughts up within a single, long sentence. But then, go right back to a short sentence or two. Otherwise, you may lose your reader. Whether consciously or intuitively, experienced writers tend to move naturally back and forth between longer and shorter sentences, producing a sort of wave-like, resonant motion for readers. Short helps. Long sentences can also help the reader dive deeper into the meaning that the writer intends, like holding one’s breath to swim to the bottom where treasures may lurk. For short sentences, think Hemingway. For long sentences, think Faulkner painting rich and lurid scenes as his winding sentences, some a full paragraph long, slowly advance the complex narrative. Develop your skill at varying sentence length. 

Clauses

Experienced writers can develop a good knack for inserting introductory, mid-sentence, and concluding clauses, especially prepositional phrases, to enrich their sentences. Don’t overdo it. Clauses can clarify and enrich sentence meanings. But clauses also make the reader work harder. When you find yourself sculpting an overlong sentence laden with clauses, break the sentence up. Your overlong sentence may contain a paragraph worth of short sentences. Don’t try to pack complex thoughts into single, overlong sentences. Instead, let the reader unfold your complex thought through a series of shorter sentences. Especially beware joining two or more prepositional phrases together in a single sentence. The boy with the dog wearing a collar for security in case the dog got lost might better keep the dog at home on a rope by the shed in the shade so that the boy could relax assured of the dog’s security against loss, injury, or theft. Got it? No. Far too many prepositional phrases and clauses. Use clauses wisely and selectively, not with wild abandon but instead with sound restraint. 

Incomplete

Incomplete sentences are a novice writer’s error. Intentionally incomplete sentences can be a skilled writer’s tool. Sometimes. Selectively. Without annoying the reader. Notice how the three prior incomplete sentences permitted you to pause and refresh, while still moving the thought forward. But you may also have found yourself slightly annoyed at the third consecutive incomplete sentence. Too much. Clearly. Just as the prior two incomplete sentences, added to the three already used in this paragraph, made the writing especially annoying. In scholarly writing, every sentence should generally be complete, with subject, verb, and object. In casual writing, readers may accept and even welcome and enjoy an incomplete sentence here and there. But make any use of an incomplete sentence intentional, not accidental. Know the conventions for your writing’s type and form, know your editor’s preferences, and know your readers. Don’t overdo incomplete sentences, if you use them at all. 

Punctuation

Punctuation is plainly an important aspect of sound sentence construction. At the most-basic level, sentences begin with a capital letter and end with a period, exclamation mark, or question mark. Competent writers, even novice writers, generally have no difficulty with those basics. The use of colons and semi-colons, although also relatively basic, can trip up more writers. A colon in a sentence’s middle anticipates the statement or list that follows. A semi-colon in a sentence’s middle joins two complete sentences that are so closely related as to warrant a semi-colon rather than a period and new sentence with a fresh capital. Rare sentences warrant a semi-colon; only those very closely connected. Semi-colons can also separate list items following a colon. The use of commas can be a writer’s most-challenging punctuation issue. Commas generally set off introductory or concluding clauses and non-essential clauses in a sentence’s middle, especially if those clauses are four words or longer. A comma can also separate two complete sentences joined by a conjunction. Commas also separate adjectives all modifying the same nouns. Some uses of commas, though, are discretionary, simply to help the reader catch the meaning. Reread sentences over which you have comma questions, to get a sense of how the reader encounters them. Then, make the better intuitive choice. 

Reflection

On a scale from one to ten, how confident are you in your crafting of sound and interesting sentences? Have you grown stronger as a writer of sentences? Do you sense your continued growth in how you construct and vary sentences? Do your sentences routinely disclose their subjects and objects, while avoiding passive voice? Are you conscious of your use of passive voice and aware of how your editors and readers may not appreciate it? Do you have a reasonably rich vocabulary? Do you vary your verbs sensitively, drawing on a wider range of verb choices, to reveal your subject’s actions and intentions? Do you tend to write in shorter or longer sentences? Do you find yourself willing to go back and break up overlong sentences, as you write them? Do you vary your sentence length to help the reader dive deeper and then recover, and to give your writing a rhythm? Do you overuse prepositional phrases? Are you aware of your option of using an incomplete sentence to catch the reader’s attention? Do you otherwise ensure that you have constructed your sentences soundly, ensuring that they are complete?

Key Points

• Well-crafted sentences, as a writer’s basic unit of thought, are critical.

• Richer vocabulary can contribute to sentence meaning and quality.

• Sentences should generally disclose rather than conceal their subject.

• Vary verbs in your sentences to better describe actions and intentions.

• Sentences should generally disclose rather than conceal their objects.

• Avoid passive voice or passive language using to be verbal phrases.

• Keep your sentences to reasonable length so as not to exhaust readers.

• Vary your sentence lengths to relieve readers and produce rhythm.

• Use prepositional phrases and other clauses selectively.

• Avoid incomplete sentences except when intended in casual writing.

• Punctuate according to convention to respect both editor and reader.

Read Chapter 10.