Building better sentences: The essentials in writing that transformed my essays

[Muller]

I always thought good writing was about having big ideas. Turns out, those ideas need to be delivered in well-constructed sentences, or nobody will stick around to read them. Learning the essentials in writing at the sentence level changed everything for me.

Sentence essentials I now practice:

• Vary your length – Mix short punchy sentences with longer flowing ones for rhythm .
• Use active voice – 'Strong writers favor active voice' instead of 'Active voice is favored by strong writers' .
• Reduce prepositional phrases – Instead of 'the decision of the court at the time of the ruling,' try 'the court's ruling' .
• Parallel structure – Keep similar ideas in similar grammatical form .
• Em dashes for emphasis – Use them—like this—to include asides or add punch .

The book 'Brilliant Writing Tips for Students' emphasizes that sentence structure is foundational to clear communication . Once I started paying attention to how my sentences were built, my writing became so much clearer.

The ideas were the same, but the delivery was way more effective .

 

[PeterP]

Hey Muller, your point about active voice is something I struggle with daily . My professors always mark up my papers with "passive construction" and I never quite know how to fix it. Your example made it click though! Gonna try rewriting my current draft with active voice as an experiment.

Also just ordered that book you mentioned—my sentences tend to run on forever with too many prepositional phrases. Thanks for the recommendations!