Definition

A SENTENCE FRAGMENT fails to be a sentence in the sense that it cannot stand by itself. It does not contain even one independent clause. There are several reasons why a group of words may seem to act like a sentence but not have the wherewithal to make it as a complete thought. It may locate something in time and place with a prepositional phrase or a series of such phrases, but it's still lacking a proper subject-verb relationship within an independent clause: In Japan, during the last war and just before the armistice. This sentence accomplishes a great deal in terms of placing the reader in time and place, but there is no subject, no verb. It describes something, but there is no subject-verb relationship: Working far into the night in an effort to salvage her little boat. This is a verbal phrase that wants to modify something, the real subject of the sentence (about to come up), probably the she who was working so hard. It may have most of the makings of a sentence but still be missing an important part of a verb string: Some of the students working in Professor Espinoza's laboratory last semester. Remember that an -ing verb form without an auxiliary form to accompany it can never be a verb. It may even have a subject-verb relationship, but it has been subordinated to another idea by a dependent word and so cannot stand by itself: Even though he had the better arguments and was by far the more powerful speaker. This sentence fragment has a subject, he, and two verbs, had and was, but it cannot stand by itself because of the dependent word (subordinating conjunction) even though. We need an independent clause to follow up this dependent clause: . . . the more powerful speaker, he lost the case because he didn't understand the jury.

Parallelism (grammar)
In grammar, parallelism is a balance of two or more similar words, phrases, or clauses. The application of parallelism in sentence construction can sometimes improve writing style clearness and readability. It can also strengthen sequences described. Parallelism may also be known as parallel structure or parallel construction. In English, parallelism of the predicate provides for one of the few structural situations in which the subject for each verb does not need restatement. Parallelism is often achieved in conjunction with other stylistic principles, such as antithesis, anaphora, asyndeton, climax, epistrophe, and symploce.[1]

More properly, this entry should be Parallelism (rhetoric) and a separate entry made for Parallelism (grammar). Or it could be one heading with two subheadings. I will compose entry on grammatical parallelism and revisit the problem when is written. Samwisebruce 19:42, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

I agree with your ideas. I can go ahead and rework this article to more closely reflect parallelism (grammar) and move its current contents to an article called parallelism (rhetoric).Mazeface 22:33, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

Dave tried playing football in the afternoon and his homework at night. This unsigned comment was added by
Mslady22 (talk contribs) .

[edit] Example

I fail to see why "You must take particular care in the preparation of your materials and methods, your bibliography, and your index." should be ungrammatical. There's three DP constituents in a parallelism embedded under "of": [your [materials and methods]], [your bibliography] and [your index]. What's the problem with that? Judging this one ungrammatical seems to me to be hypercorrection. Preceding unsigned
comment added by 84.113.145.183 (talk) 01:19, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

Agreed. Though I have no idea where to find an official opinion and have never encountered one, if such even exists. I tend to construct sentences: We can register for classes in person, or we can register by telephone. You must take particular care in the preparation of your materials and methods, of your bibliography, and of your index. The investigator added drug A, added drug B, and measured the pH. The investigator added drugs A and B, and measured the pH. This admittedly doesn't sound to me like it could be described as parallelism, but it does sound clear enough and less clumsy. I would certainly not consider it wrong. If someone could clarify by reference to reliable source, or changing from correct/wrong to parallelism/not parallelism, or indeed by explaining what is correct/wrong about the various sentences.62.56.69.230 (talk) 22:58, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

parallelism
By Richard Nordquist, About.com Guide
Definition:

Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses. Also called parallel structure. By convention, items in a series appear in parallel grammatical form: a noun is listed with other nouns, an -ing form with other -ing forms, and so on. Failure to express such items in similar grammatical form is called faulty parallelism.
Etymology: From the Greek, "beside one another"

Examples and Observations:

"New roads; new ruts." (G. K. Chesterton)

"Live in your world, play in ours." (advertising slogan for Sony PlayStation 2)

"The more we do, the more we can do." (William Hazlitt)

"He's quite a man with the girls. They say he's closed the eyes of many a man and opened the eyes of many a woman." (telegraph operator to Penny Worth in Angel and the Badman, 1947) "They are laughing at me, not with me." (Bart Simpson, The Simpsons) "Voltaire could both lick boots and put the boot in. He was at once opportunist and courageous, cunning and sincere. He managed, with disconcerting ease, to reconcile love of freedom with love of hours." (Dominique Edde) "Truth is not a diet but a condiment." (Christopher Morley) "When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative." (Martin Luther King, Jr.) "Our transportation crisis will be solved by a bigger plane or a wider road, mental illness with a pill, poverty with a law, slums with a bulldozer, urban conflict with a gas, racism with a goodwill gesture." (Philip Slater, The Pursuit of Loneliness) "I dont want to live on in my work. I want to live on in my apartment." (Woody Allen) "Buy a bucket of chicken and have a barrel of fun." (slogan of Kentucky Fried Chicken) "The loss we felt was not the loss of ham but the loss of pig." (E. B. White, "Death of a Pig") "Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal." (T.S. Eliot)

 "[T]he value of parallel structure goes beyond aesthetics. . . . It points up the structure of the sentence, showing readers what goes with what and keeping them on the right track." (Claire K. Cook, Line by Line. Houghton Mifflin, 1985) "Today's students can put dope in their veins or hope in their brains. If they can conceive it and believe it, they can achieve it. They must know it is not their aptitude but their attitude that will determine their altitude." (Jesse Jackson)

Basic Spelling Rules

One of the most common spelling rules taught to elementary students is "I before E, except after C, unless it says A as in neighbor and weigh." However, there are a number of other rules that you can use to help decode the spelling of an unfamiliar word. For example:

The letter Q is always followed by U. In this case, the U is not considered to be a vowel. The letter S never follows X. The letter Y, not I, is used at the end of English words. Examples of this rule include my, by, shy, and why. To spell a short vowel sound, only one letter is needed. Examples of this rule include at, red, it, hot, and up. Drop the E. When a word ends with a silent final E, it should be written without the E when adding an ending that begins with a vowel. In this way, come becomes coming and hope becomes hoping. When adding an ending to a word that ends with Y, change the Y to I if it is preceded by a consonant. In this way, supply becomes supplies and worry becomes worried. All, written alone, has two L's. When used as a prefix, however, only one L is written. Examples of this rule include also and almost. Generally, adding a prefix to a word does not change the correct spelling. Words ending in a vowel and Y can add the suffix -ed or -ing without making any other change.

Here are the most common spelling rules in English. For exceptions to the rules take a look at Common Spelling Problems. Capital Letters Use Capital (T, S, B, etc.) letters for the following types of words:

Days, Months and Public Holidays Monday, January, Christmas

Proper names of People and Places Jack, Maria, New York, Germany

Titles for People Ms, Dr, General

Nationalities and Regions (both nouns and adjectives) Dutch, Swedish, Basque

Titles of Works of Art (content words only) The Last Day of Summmer, American Journal of Medicine

When to Double Final Consonants The final consonant of a word is often doubled when adding -ed, -ing, -er, -est in the following cases:

Double final "b, d, g, l, m, n, p, r and t" at the end of words: rob - robbing sad - sadder big - bigger travel - traveller skim - skimming win - winner pop - popping prefer - preferred hit - hitting

Double these final letters there is the following pattern "consonant - vowel - consonant" at the end of a word. For example: travel - 'vel' v - consonant - e - vowel l - consonant. Words of more than one syllable have their consonants doubled only when the final syllable is stressed. begin - beginn ing BUT open - opening defer - deferr ing BUT offer - offering

When words have more than one syllable and end in 'l' British English always doubles the 'l', even in the case of unstressed syllables. American English, on the other hand, the 'l' is not doubled when the syllable is unstressed. British English - travelled American English - traveled

Final -E Leave off the final 'e' in the following cases:

When the word ends in 'e' adding a suffix that begins with a vowel (this is usually the case, although there are exceptions such as 'outrageous'). make - making note - notable

Do not leave out the final 'e' when a word ends in 'ee'. agree - agreeable

Words ending in 'ge' and 'ce' do NOT drop the final 'e' encourage - encouragement embrace - embraceable

'IE' and 'EI' This is a common spelling problem, even for native English speakers. Probably the best thing to do is remember this rhyme: I before E except after C relief thief believe BUT perceive receipt ceiling 'Y' and 'I' When adding an ending to a word that finishes in 'y', the 'y' usually changes to 'i':

Most nouns and verbs that end in 'y' have plural or third person singular conjugations that change to 'i'. party - parties hurry - She hurries to work.

When changing the word form (for example from adjective to adverb) happy - happily lazy - lazily easy - easier

Do NOT change the final 'y' to 'i' when 'y' is preceded by a vowel stay - stays enjoy - enjoyed EXCEPTIONS: say, lay, pay - said, laid, paid

Do NOT change the final 'y' to 'i' when followed by '-ing', '-ism', '-ish'. boy - boyish try - trying

'IE' to 'Y' When a word ends in 'ie' change to 'y' before adding '-ing' die - dying lie - lying

In linguistics, a coordination is a complex syntactic structure that links together two or more elements, known as conjuncts or conjoins. Coordinators are typically: "and" and "or". The word "but" is also often considered a coordinator although it may have slightly different properties to others. Coordination has a number of interesting linguistic properties.

Any syntactic category can be coordinated. It is subject to the Rule of Coordination of Likes It is subject to the Coordinate Structure Constraint. but is subject to an exception in the form of Across-the-Board extraction.

Coordinating conjunctions are often, though not always, used to link the conjuncts in a coordination. Depending on the number of conjunctions used, coordinations can be classified as "syndetic", "asyndetic", or "polysyndetic". Coordination can be contrasted with subordination, a complex structure in which the component parts do not have parallel functions. This is also known as pseudo-coordination. The interest of pseudocoordination lies in the ways this construction differs from coordination proper.

Coordination of likes
The following examples show that like constituents can be coordinated but unlike ones generally cannot.[1]

[Sarah and Xolani] went to town (coordination of NPs) [The chicken and the rice] go well together (coordination of DPs) [That the president understood the criticism and that he took action] was appreciated (coordination of CPs) The president [understood the criticism and took action] (coordination of VPs) (*)[Sarah and that the president understood the criticism] were appreciated

There are, however, a number of exceptions to the Rule of coordination of likes for example the following sentence. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Sarah is a CEO and proud of her job.

The conjuncts generally have similar grammatical features (e.g. syntactic category, semantic function), and the coordinated structure as a whole retains most of the same properties as the individual conjuncts, although it may introduce new features (e.g. plurality).

[edit] Island Properties

The Coordinate Structure Constraint Coordination constructions are strong islands for extraction; one cannot extract from any single conjunct.[7]

(*)Who and Sarah went to town? (*)Sarah and who went to town? (*)What did the president understand the criticism and take?

The Across-the-Board Constraint There is an exception to the islandhood property however: it is possible to extract from a coordination construction if one extracts the same constituent from both conjuncts simultaneously.[8][9]

What did Sarah like and Xolani hate?

There are other apparent exceptions the Coordinate Structure Constraint and the Across-the-Board generalization and their integration to existing syntactic theory has been a long-standing disciplinary desideratum.[10] [11] [12] [13] [14][15] [16]

[edit] Pseudo-coordination
In pseudo-coordinative constructions, the coordinator, generally `and', appears to have a subordinating function. It occurs in many languages and is sometimes known as "hendiadys", and often, but not always, is used to convey a pejorative or idiomatic connotation.[17] Among the Germanic languages, Pseudo-coordination occurs in English, Afrikaans, Norwegian, Danish and Swedish.[18][19] Pseudo-coordination appears to be absent in Dutch and German. The pseudo-coordinative construction is limited to a few verbs. In English, these verbs are typically "go", "try" and "sit". In other languages, typical pseudo-coordinative verbs and/or hendiadys predicates are egressive verbs (e.g. "go") and verbs of body posture (e.g. "sit", "stand" and "lie down").

Why don't you go and jump in the lake I will try and jump in the lake The pupils sat and read their textbooks

A typical property of pseudo-coordinative constructions is that, unlike ordinary coordination, they appear to violate the Across-the-Board extraction property. In other words, it is possible to extract from one of the conjuncts.[20][21]

What did she go and jump in t? What did she try and jump in Which textbooks did the pupils sit and read.

It has been argued that pseudo-coordination is not a unitary phenomenon. Even in a single language such as English, the predicate "try" exhibits different pseudo-coordination properties to other predicates and other predicates such as "go" and "sit" can instantiate a number of different pseudo-coordinative construction types.[22] On the other hand, it has been argued that at least some different types of pseudo-coordination can be analysed using ordinary coordination as opposed to stipulating that pseudo-coordinative `and' is a subordinator; the differences between the various constructions derive from the level of structure that is coordinated e.g. coordination of heads, coordination of VP etc.[23]

SENTENCE UNITY

Good writing is unified by purposeful and logical sentences. You can create more purposeful and logical sentences by choosing and arranging details, by revising mixed metaphors, and by relating sentence parts. 23aChoosing and Arranging Details Well-chosen details add interest and credibility to your writing. As you revise, you may occasionally notice a sentence that would be clearer and more believable with the addition of a phrase or two about time, location, or cause. Missing important detail: An astrophysicist from the Harvard Smithsonian Center has predicted a galactic storm. With detail added: An astrophysicist from the Harvard Smithsonian Center has predicted that a galactic storm will occur within the next 10 million years. Without the additional information about rime, most readers would wonder when the storm was supposed to hit. Knowing that the storm is predicted for millions of years in the future will help them accept the information presented. The details you choose will help your readers understand your message. If you provide too many details within a single sentence, though, your readers may lost sight of your main point. When considering how much detail to include, you may sometimes want to write a long and fairly complex sentence. Just he sure that every derail contributes to the central thought. Exercise 1: Rewrite the following sentences so that the details clearly support the main idea. You may need to combine sentences or add words. 1. Firefighting is a dangerous job, but there are many high-tech devices and fire-resistant materials. 2. Wildfires can trap firefighters. Fire shelters are being developed to withstand temperatures as high as 2,000 degrees. 3. NASA developed Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles. Firefighters need to get accurate information fast. 4. Firefighters have difficulty seeing through smoke. A thermal imaging camera detects differences in heat and distinguishes between humans and surrounding objects. 5. Opticom is a traffic-control system, so firefighters can get to a fire quickly. They can change a red light to green from 2,000 feet away.
Ex.1 Rev

23bRevising Mixed Metaphors

When you use language that evokes images, make sure that the images are meaningfully related. Unrelated images are called mixed metaphors. The following sentence includes incompatible images. As he climbed the corporate ladder, he sank into a sea of debt. The combination of two images--climbing a ladder and sinking into a sea--could create a picture in the readers mind of a man hanging onto a ladder as it disappears into the water. The easiest way to revise such a sentence is to replace the words evoking one of the conflicting images.

23cRelating Sentence Parts (1) Mixed constructions are illogical. A sentence that begins with one kind of grammatical structure and shifts to another is a mixed construction. To untangle a mixed construction, make sure that the sentence includes a conventional subject--a noun, a noun phrase, a gerund phrase, an infinitive phrase, or a noun clause. Prepositional phrases and adverbial clauses are not typical subjects. If you find a sentence that has a mixed construction, you can either a) revise the subject or b) leave the beginning of the sentence as a modifier and add a new subject after it.

Mixed: By practicing a new language daily will help you become proficient. Revised a): Practicing a new language daily will help you become proficient. [A gerund phrase replaces a prepositional phrase.] Revised b): By practicing a new language daily, you will become more proficient.

Mixed: Although she won a scholarship does not give her the right to skip classes. Revised a): Her scholarship award does not give her the right to skip classes. [A noun phrase replaces an adverbial clause.] Revised b): Although she won a scholarship, she does not have the right to skip classes.
More

23c (2) Sentence parts are linked together logically. When drafting, writers sometimes compose sentences in which the subject is said to be something or to do something that is not logically possible. This breakdown in meaning is called faulty predication. Similarly, mismatches between a verb and its complement can obscure meaning. (a) Mismatch between subject and verb The joining of a subject and a verb must create a meaningful idea. Mismatch: The absence of detail screams out at the reader. [An absence cannot scream.] Revision: The reader immediately notices the absence of detail. b) Illogical equation with be When a form of the verb be joins two parts of a sentence (the subject and the subject complement), these two parts should be logically related. Illogical equation: The importance of speed is essential when you are walking on thin ice. [Importance cannot be essential.] Revision: Speed is essential when you are walking on thin ice. c) Mismatches in definitions When you write a formal definition, be sure that your subject and predicate fit together grammatically. The term being defined should be hollowed by a noun or a noun phrase, not an adverbial clause. Avoid using is when or is where. Mismatch: Ecology is when you study the relationships among living organisms and between living organisms and their environment. Revision: Ecology is the study of the relationships among living organisms and between living organisms and their environment. Mismatch: Exploitive competition is where two or more organisms vie for a limited resource such as food. Revision: Exploitive competition is the contest between two or more organisms [...] for a limited resource such as food.

(d) Mismatch of reason with is because

You can see why reason and is because are a mismatch by looking at the meaning of-because: "for the reason that." Saying "the reason is for the reason that" is redundant. Thus, revise any sentence containing the construction the reason is ... because. Mismatch: The reason the old train station was closed is because it had fallen into disrepair. Revision: The [] old train station was closed [] because it had fallen into disrepair. (e) Mismatch between verb and complement A verb and its complement should fit together meaningfully. Mismatch: Only a few students used the incorrect use of there. [to "use an incorrect use" is not logical.] Revision: Only a few students used there incorrectly. To clarify a sentence in which a relative pronoun in the object position is illogically connected to a verb, replace the pronoun with its antecedent. In the hollowing sentence, the inspiration is the antecedent for that. Mismatch: The inspiration that the author created touched young writers. [To "create an inspiration" is not logical.] Revision The author inspired young writers.
Examples

(3) Verbs used to integrate information are followed by specific types of complements. Attributive tags are phrases used to identify sources of information [see 38d(1)]. Most verbs inti attributive tags are followed by a noun clause beginning with that or a wh- word. A few common verbs and their typical complements are listed below. (Some verbs such as explain fall into more than one category.) VERBS FOR ATTRIBUTION AND THEIR COMPLEMENTS Verb + that noun clause agree claim explain report suggest argue demonstrate maintain state think Example: The researcher reported that the weather patterns had changed. Verb + noun phrase + that noun clause

convince persuade remind tell Example: He told the reporters that he was planning to resign. Verb + wh- noun clause demonstrate discuss report suggest describe explain state wonder Example: She described what had happened.
Student Examples

Exercise 2: Revise the following sentences so that each verb is followed by a conventional complement. l. The committee chair discussed that funding requests had specific requirements. 2. He persuaded that mass transit was affordable. 3. The two groups agreed how the problem could he solved. 4. Brown and Edwards described that improvements had been made to the old building. 5. They wondered that such a catastrophe could happen. Exercise 2 Revisions

What is unity of the sentence?

Answerer 1
Unity applies to a group of sentences, not just one. Unity is a quality of a written composition in which every sentence is logicaly related and works to develop an idea. If you wrote a paragraph about calculators and used one sentence to discus tricycles, the paragraph would not have unity.

Subordination (linguistics)
In linguistics, subordination (abbreviated variously SUBORD, SBRD, SUBR or SR) is a complex syntactic construction in which one or more clauses are dependent on the main clause, such as The dog ran home after it had played with the ball. The italicized text is the subordinate clause. The grammatical structure associated with subordination is hypotaxis, or the grammatical arrangement of "unequal" constructs (hypo="beneath", taxis="arrangement").

Dependent clauses are also called "subordinate clauses". Subordinate clauses are introduced by a complementizer (e.g. that, if, whether) or a subordinating conjunction (e.g. after, because, while).

subordinate complement clause: I don't know if George is awake yet. subordinate modifier clause: George overslept because his alarm clock was broken.

sentence
Definition:

The largest independent unit of grammar: it begins with a capital letter and ends with a period, question mark, or exclamation point. Adjective: sentential. The sentence is traditionally (and inadequately) defined as a word or group of words that expresses a complete idea and that includes a subject and a verb.
The four basic sentence structures are the simple sentence, the compound sentence, the complex sentence, and the compound-complex sentence.

CHARACTERISTICS of good SENTENCES

posted February 12, 2010 - 4:54pm CHARACTERISTICS of good SENTENCES

CHARACTERISTICS of good SENTENCES Youve written sentences since you were in elementary school, so why take the space here to talk about writing good sentences? Because not all sentences are created equal, good writers dont just spew out sentences and consider the job done. Instead, they consciously manipulate sentence structure, word choice, sentence length, and emphasis. While paragraphs are the building blocks for every multi-paragraph paper, sentences make up the foundation. We all know that if a foundation crumbles, the building blocks come crashing down. So, here is your guide to writing good sentences. CHARACTERISTICS Good sentences follow these characteristics: Accurately exhibit one of four structures: simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex. Use strong words, including specific nouns and verbs. Include variety in their beginnings, structure, and length. Use parallel structures for parallel ideas. Put the main idea in the main clause and subordinate ideas in subordinate clauses. Place the most important idea at the end, the second most important idea at the beginning, and tuck other information in the middle. Follow the rules of grammar, mechanics, and usage. STEP 1: Building Basic Sentences Sentences are built using one of four structures:

Simple A simple sentence has a subject and verb. Either may be compound, and both may have words and phrases that modify them. For example: The pad fell. Simple sentence; subject pad, verb fell The red personalized mouse pad fell off the desk and onto the floor. Subject: pad Verb: fell Words modifying the subject: the, red, personalized, mouse Phrases modifying the verb: off the desk, onto the floor The mouse pad and mouse fell off the desk. Compound subjects: pad and mouse Verb: fell Words modifying the subject: the, mouse Phrases modifying the verb: off the desk Compound A compound sentence is made of two simple sentences joined together. A comma marks where the two simple sentences are joined. For example: The mouse pad fell on the floor, and the mouse landed on top. First simple sentence: The mouse pad fell on the floor. Second simple sentence: The mouse landed on top. Complex A complex sentence is a simple sentence with a subordinate clause added. For example: The mouse pad fell on the floor when the cat jumped on the desk. Simple sentence: The mouse pad fell on the floor. Subordinate clause: when the cat jumped on the desk Compound-Complex A compound-complex sentence has two simple sentences and at least one subordinate clause. For example: When the cat jumped on the desk, the mouse pad fell on the floor, and the mouse landed on top. First simple sentence: The mouse pad fell on the floor. Second simple sentence: The mouse landed on top. Subordinate clause: when the cat jumped on the desk STEP 2: Choosing Strong Words Any sentence structure is strengthened by strong words. Consider these suggestions: Use strong nouns and verbs in order to eliminate wordy adjectives and adverbs. Dont write: The young boy walked slowly across the yard. Instead write: The toddler inched his way across the yard. Use more action verbs than linking verbs. Dont write: He was tall and handsome. Instead write: The tall, handsome man caught her eye. Use active voice more frequently than passive voice. Dont write: The child was bitten by a snake. Instead write: A snake bit the child. Use figurative language for creative sentences.

Dont write: She ran home as quickly as she could. Instead write: She blew in the door like the wind. STEP 3: Varying Sentences Repeated sentence structures, no matter how good, bore your reader. Variety, as the clich goes, is the spice of life; so spice up your writing accordingly. Follow these suggestions: Vary sentence beginnings. If every sentence begins with a subject followed by a verb, you create monotony. Instead, begin sentences with these common variations: with a prepositional phrase, such as After dinner last night.... with a participial phrase, such as Walking home alone.... with an infinitive phrase, such as To put her best foot forward.... with an adverb clause, such as After we ate dinner last night.... with an introductory word, such as Yes.... with a transitional word, such as Thus.... with a transitional phrase, such as No matter the results.... Commas usually follow these kinds of introductory phrases and clauses. Vary sentence structure. Consider these variations: If you use predominantly simple sentences, your message seems simple (and if your audience is young readers, that may be your intent). If you use mostly compound-complex sentences, your message seems complicated and difficult to understand. If you use a mixture of sentence structures, you can create emphasis. Put the many background details in a series of compound, complex, and compoundcomplex sentences; put the conclusion in a simple sentence. The simple sentence packs emphasis. (Compare these last two sentences for an example.) Vary sentence lengths. Consider two examples of the power of varied lengths: A series of very short sentences surrounded by longer sentences can create a staccato-like rhythm that hits hard. For example: We hoped for gorgeous weather during our two-week vacation to the beach. We wanted sun. We wanted hot. We wanted breeze. Unfortunately, we wanted more than Mother Nature would give us. Long sentences followed by a single short one generally build to a powerful emphasis. Consider the following: The two candidates spoke eloquently about preserving the environment, including legislating wetlands protection and national and state forest protection. According to their messages, environmentally minded voters could cast their votes for either candidate and find satisfaction. One message was false. STEP 4: Using Parallel Structures When you have a series of parallel ideas, write sentences that put those ideas in parallel structure: We wanted sun. We wanted hot. We wanted breeze. Various passersby offered to drive her home, to change the flat tire, or to call a cab. STEP 5: Placing Ideas For the clearest message and greatest emphasis, place ideas in sentences according to their importance. Put the main idea in the main clause, and subordinate ideas in subordinate clauses. For example, Dont write: Because Marty hoped to find the floral delivery person at her door, she smiled when the doorbell rang.

Instead write: When the doorbell rang, Marty hoped to find the floral delivery person at her door. STEP 6: Placing Important Words Any public speaker, advertiser, or coach will tell you that the last word spoken is the most important. The last word of a speech lingers on the listeners ear just a few seconds longer than those words that came before. The last word on a television or radio commercial (usually the product name) floats just a bit in the listeners mind. And when the coach sends the team out to the playing field, its with a command to give its best. The most important word in any sentence is the last. So be sure to put your most important word last! The second most important word is the first. The rest tends to get buried in the middle. Dont write: I was sure, with the telltale signs throughout the house, that Brian had been there. Instead write: Telltale signs proved Brian had been in the house. Using these steps will help you consciously control your own sentences and build a solid foundation into everything you write.