ClearTips: Stunning sentences

1. Common Forms

Most sentences should convey one idea—or two closely related ideas. That generally takes twenty to twenty-five words. The core of the sentence—sometimes all of the sentence—is the main clause. Embellishing this core are modifying phrases and clauses—the prepositional, the defining. Complicating this embellished core are qualifying clauses-the commenting, the conditional. And then there are the multiplier effects of having two or more subjects, verbs, objects, complements, phrases, clauses.

The purpose here is not to classify sentences in the usual less-than-useful ways (simple, compound, complex, compound-complex), but to give you models to (occasionally) emulate as you drive your reader through your paragraphs. The common forms in this first section make up the full tool kit of structures for most writers. They are fine for basic purposes—but strung together they can be dunning. Variants in the later sections can relieve their relentlessness, giving your writing energy and pace.

The keys to common forms? Keep them clean by trimming as much fat as you can. Inject them with energy by using powerful words. Pick up their pace and cadence by trying to move phrases and clauses to different places in the sentence.

(For more on standard edits, see Edit Yourself, Norton, 1996.)

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