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Express a
Thought with Precision, Clarity and Economy.
Effective
writing involves far more than following rules of grammar. There
is a craft to creating phrases, sentences, and paragraphs that
ensure communication. Working from the reader's vantage point,
you can contribute to this craft by looking for opportunities to
improve your sentence structure.
"Sentence
Structure" in A Handbook for Technical Writers and Editors by
Mary K. McCaskill. Langley Research Center, Hampton,
Virginia
McCaskill,
a professional editor, describes the techniques in her editing
bag of tricks.
This
chapter on sentence structure shows how to write powerful
sentences by:
•
clarifying the subject
• making
verbs vigorous
• improving
the subject-verb relationship
•
parallelism
•
itemization
• brevity
and conciseness
• emphasis
through structure and punctuation
Writing
Better Sentences: The Writer's Block by Nancy Lawler Dickhute.
The Nebraska Lawyer April 2001.
Lawyers can
benefit from Lincoln’s mastery
of prose by
studying some of the effective principles that make his
sentences memorable. Among these are strong use of the stress
position, sentence openings, subject and verb proximity, varying
sentence length and parallel construction.
Sentence
Clarity
Narrative
with examples on: going from old to new information; placing
subordinate clauses carefully; using the active voice.
How to Make
Your Sentences Clear and Concise
This
article explains how to use UCLA Professor of English, Richard
Lanham's easy-to-use method for making your writing clear and
more concise.
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