Sentence Construction

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Introduction
 As with words, your construction of sentences will also depend on
the kind of audience you are writing for.

 You have to be sensitive to the educational background of your

readers, their expectations, their intelligence level, and so on, and
then construct sentences which will communicate effectively to
them.

 Make a conscious effort to write simple sentences so as to reach

maximum number of people.

 Always keep in mind the person with the lowest communication

competence and those who are less knowledgeable about the
subject.

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Introduction
Example 1

Communication Situation: A doctor—patient interaction.

When the doctor diagnoses the disease, he/she says
To the layman patient: ‘You have some fault in your
blood’.
To a knowledgeable patient: ‘You have your WBC
counting low’.
To another doctor: ‘Your T-lymphocyte count is low’.

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Introduction
Example 2
Communication Situation: A car dealer and customer
interaction. The car dealer says:
To a technical person: ‘INDIGO is 1405CC, MPH petrol
engine which delivers 85 bhp at the torque of 11 kgm @ 3000
rpm.’
To a non-technical but well-educated person: ‘INDIGO has a
powerful 85 bhp petrol engine with computer-controlled fuel
injection system.’
To a layman: ‘INDIGO has a very good modern petrol engine.’

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Guidelines for Effectiveness
Prefer Short Sentences
 Simplicity in writing can be achieved mainly by writing short sentences.

 Shorter sentences convey meaning better than longer ones.

 If too many ideas are suffocated in a sentence through words, the

meaning is lost, the reader is left in a confused state

 Therefore, you should attempt to put less information into a sentence at

a time.

 Preferring shorter sentences does not mean that you cannot use long
sentences at all.

 You can use them if required, but construct them meticulously so that
clarity is achieved.

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Guidelines for Effectiveness
Prefer Short Sentences
While giving a speech, you can use long sentences to good
effect by using appropriate pauses, modulation, and body
language.
But as these non-verbal and paralinguistic features are
missing in writing, you should be careful in framing
sentences.
The best sentence is that which a reader can understand in
the very first reading.

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Guidelines for Effectiveness
Prefer Short Sentences
It is appropriate to use medium-length sentences
(about 20 words) for linking ideas.
Though there is no rule about the length of a sentence,
most effective business writing has an average length of
20 words per sentence or fewer.

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Guidelines for Effectiveness
Break the Sentence
 When a sentence is loaded with a lot of information, it becomes
very difficult to decipher the meaning.

 It is difficult to break a sentence only when the ideas are too closely
knit.

 Otherwise you can break it into two or three sentences to bring in

more clarity

 You can see the advantage of short sentences over long sentences
from the following examples:

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9
 Guidelines for Effectiveness
Prefer Short Sentences
Fog Index: The Fog Index was devised by the American, Robert Gunning to
assess the readability of any text. In his view, the more a writer uses long
sentences and words, the more the clarity of the text is ‘fogged.’ This simple
method is calculated as follows:
 Choose a sample text containing about 100 words.
 Count the number of sentences and the number of words. Divide the number of
words by the number of sentences to arrive at the average sentence length (ASL).
 Now count the number of long words (NLW—those with three or more syllables).
You can’t count proper names, combination words like chairperson or firefighter or
three-syllable verbs created by adding “es”, “ed” like united or arranges.
 Perform this calculation
Fog Index = (ASL+NLW) x 0.4

The figure you arrive at scores thus on a scale of readability:

5 to 10—easy
11 to 1 5—difficult
16 to 20—very difficult
Popular magazines score in the range of 8—12 while the average level for
university students is 14-16.
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Guidelines for Effectiveness
Break the Sentence
 However, do not be tempted to write too many short sentences, as your
writing will sound jerky and irritating.

 It will also give an impression of elementary writing (such as writing for

children).

 Look at following sentences:

 Original: The tinder must be some soft, inflammable material. This may
be dry grass, leaves, or wood shavings.

 Revised: The tinder must be some soft, inflammable material, such as

dry grass, leaves, or wood shavings.

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Guidelines for Effectiveness
 Original: The experiment was over. I completed the report. I shut
down the power supply. I submitted the report to the instructor. I left
the laboratory.
 Revised: I completed the report as soon as the experiment was over.
After shutting down the power supply, I submitted the report to my
instructor and left.
 Original: The logs are fastened to a chain running up an incline. When
they reach the floor of the mill they are rolled onto the carriage. The
carriage is about forty feet long by fifteen wide. It moves the logs
toward the saw after each is cut by means of an automatic feeding
device.
 Revised: The logs are fastened to a chain and hauled up an incline to
the floor of the mill, where they are rolled onto the carriage. The
latter, which is about forty feet long by fifteen feet wide, is provided
with an automatic feeding device by means of which the logs are
moved towards the saw after each cut.
 The original versions sound choppy and disjointed whereas in the
long sentences, the sequence of thoughts is smoothly linked.
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Guidelines for Effectiveness
Be Stringent with Words
 You can also shorten sentences by being careful with words.

 One idea can be expressed in a number of ways; one way can be

shorter than the other.

 Usually the briefly worded sentence saves the time of the reader
apart from being clear and more interesting.

 If you are vigilant with your use of words, you will find a way to say
the sentence in a shorter way.

 Once you have learnt to economize, you will notice that your earlier
writing was wasteful and uneconomical.

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Guidelines for Effectiveness
Avoid Cluttering Phrases
 Sentences often become long because of cluttering phrases.

 You can replace these phrases with shorter wording, without

loss of meaning. Let us look at the examples:
 Inthe event of procrastination and dilatory action the
operations will be shunned.
 The phrase ‘in the event of’ is uneconomical and can be
substituted by ‘if’ without loss of meaning. Similarly
‘procrastination’ and ‘dilatory action’ can be replaced by
‘delay in action’.
 If there is delay in action, the operations will be cancelled.
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Guidelines for Effectiveness
Avoid Cluttering Phrases

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Guidelines for Effectiveness
Avoid Pleonasm or Redundant Phrases
 To write with simplicity and clarity avoid using excess words which do
not contribute any meaning to the sentence.
 Sometimes you need to reconstruct the sentence while eliminating these
extra phrases, while at other times you can just delete them.
 Look at some of the examples of pleonasm taken from technical writing:

 It has been glaringly noticed from the records of the accounts that the
company faced great loss in this fiscal year.
 The initial words in the sentence do not add anything substantial to the
meaning of the sentence. Therefore they can be dispensed with, and the
sentence can be reconstructed thus:
 The records of the account indicate that the company faced great loss in this
fiscal year.

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Avoid Pleonasm or Redundant Phrases
Original: I am of the opinion that the company
managers should be admonished for their misconduct.
Revised: The company managers should be admonished
for their misconduct.

Original: In the light of the fact the Mr. Ali has worked
with effort to build his website, we must give him the
contract.
Revised: Since Mr. Ali has worked with effort to build his
website, we should give him the contract.

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Avoid Pleonasm or Redundant Phrases
Original: It is essential that there be no construction of
houses in the area designated as the sanctuary for
wildlife.
Revised: There should be no construction of houses in the
area designated as the wildlife sanctuary.

Original: The antique dealer who is on the IJP road has a

pair of silver candlesticks which were designed by Adam.
Revised: The antique dealer on the IJP road has a pair of
silver candlesticks which were designed by Adam.

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Avoid Pleonasm or Redundant Phrases
Original: Many of the riders were boys with skinny
frames and bold spirits.
Revised: Many of the riders were skinny framed bold
spirited boys.

Original: In the period between October and

December, the business did well.
Revised: Between October and December, the business
did well.

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Guidelines for Effectiveness
Avoid Roundabout Expressions

 While it is possible to write a sentence in innumerable

ways, some ways are more direct than others.
 Let us observe this sentence:

 Ifthere are any points on which you require explanation

or further details, we shall be glad to furnish such
additional details as may be required by telephone.
 The better substitute is:
 Ifyou have any questions, please contact us over
telephone.
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Avoid Roundabout Expressions
Original: It is important that you shall read the notes,
advice, and information detailed opposite, then
complete the form overleaf prior to this immediate
return to the council by way of the envelope provided.

Revised: Please read the notes given opposite before you

fill the form. Then send it back as soon as possible in the
envelope provided.

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Avoid Roundabout Expressions
Original: The table is intended to assist investors in
understanding the costs and expenses that a
shareholder in the fund will bear directly or indirectly.
Revised: This table describes the fees and expenses you
may pay in connection with an investment in our fund.

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Avoid Roundabout Expressions
Original: The following summary is intended only to
highlight certain information contained elsewhere in
the prospectus:
This summary highlights some information already
included in the prospectus.

Original: Persons other than the primary beneficiary

may not receive these dividends.
Revised: Only the primary beneficiary may receive these
dividends.
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Guidelines for Effectiveness
Avoid Roundabout Expressions
 Phrases like the ones given here are needlessly roundabout. Avoid
them in your writing and practice using more direct substitutes to
achieve a more crisp, business-like effect.

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Guidelines for Effectiveness
Avoid Needless Repetition
 Repetition of a word or idea unnecessarily lengthens the sentence, without in
any way adding to the meaning.

 Most of the time, it serves no purpose at all as you can observe in this
sentence:

 I was born in summer, the month of July.

 A more direct version, I was born in July conveys the same meaning.

 Another example:

 He remarked that he believes that I am a consummate speaker.

 By not repeating the word that, the sentence reads much more crisp:

 He remarked that he believes I am a consummate speaker.

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Avoid Needless Repetition
 Redundant words also add up to the sentence length.

 For example expressions such as past memories, various differences, true

facts, future plans, past history, sudden crisis, and free gift are illogical and
cannot be justified.
 Look at the following sentence.

 Before I finalize the schedule, please let me know your future plans.
 This can be better written as:

 Before I finalize the schedule, please let me know your plans.

 You may have heard this expression often:

 Please return back my book tomorrow.

 The sentence can be rewritten without loss of meaning like this:

 Please return my book tomorrow.

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Avoid Needless Repetition
Original: We will all assemble together for the
condolence meeting.
Revised: We all will assemble for condolence.

Original: This stick is limited in length.

Revised: This stick is short.

Original: My basic fundamentals of Physics are not clear.

Revised: My fundamentals of Physics are not clear.

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Guidelines for Effectiveness
Prefer Right Ordering and Proper Emphasis
 In order to convey the exact meaning of what you wish to say, you must
put words in the right order.

 A lot of information goes into a sentence but all of it is not necessarily of

equal importance.

 As in technical reports, the introduction and conclusion are more

important than the rest of the elements.

 You already know that the sentence length affects the emphasis.

 It is the short sentence which carries more emphasis than the longer ones.

 It stands out of the rest of the sentences and calls attention to its contents,
giving a single uninterrupted message.

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Guidelines for Effectiveness
Prefer Right Ordering and Proper Emphasis
 Longer sentences which contain many ideas are a little
confusing as the emphasis gets diluted across the contents.
 To highlight varying emphasis, let us take this example:

 The report was completed in time. The completion took place in

spite of difficulties.
 Here equal emphasis is given on both ‘report completed in
time’ and ‘difficult’.
 In the second option, where these two sentences can be
combined, the emphasis changes.
 Although we faced difficulties, the report was completed in time.
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 Guidelines for Effectiveness
Prefer Right Ordering and Proper Emphasis

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Guidelines for Effectiveness
Prefer Active to Passive Voice
 Economy of words is one of the hallmarks of good writing, and
using the active, rather than passive voice, is one way to achieve
economy.

 Passive constructions often result in vagueness. They also make

passive sentences longer since they need helping verbs (like has
been).

 You can use passive voice occasionally, wherever you want to avoid
the use of personal pronouns; otherwise it is preferable to use
active voice.

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Prefer Active to Passive Voice

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 Guidelines for Effectiveness
Avoid Ambiguous Sentences

 Ambiguity is a hindrance to clarity which in turn results in our

communication going awry.
 The faulty construction of sentences gives rise to ambiguity.

 Ambiguity arises mainly because of misplaced modifiers in

sentences. (A modifier is a word/phrase/clause which tells us
something more about a verb, noun, or adjective in the sentence.)
 The position of a modifier in a sentence is important.

 Whether it is a word, phrase, or clause, it should be placed as near

as possible to the word it modifies.

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Guidelines for Effectiveness
Avoid Ambiguous Sentences
 Example 1 (a word as modifier)
 Original: The delay in transit nearly drove the manager frantic.
 Revised: The delay in transit drove the manager near frantic,
 Example 2 (a phrase as modifier)
 Original: UET has bought new chairs for the programmers with
more comfortable seats.
 Revised: UET has bought new chairs with more comfortable seats
for the programmers.
 Example 3 (an elliptical clause as modifier)
 Original: After proofreading every word, the memo was ready to be
signed.
 Revised: After proofreading every word, we got the memo signed.
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Guidelines for Effectiveness
Avoid Ambiguous Sentences
He noticed a large stain in the rug that was right in the
centre
He notices a large stain in the centre of the rug

 The seniors were told to stop demonstration on campus

The seniors on campus were told to stop demonstration

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THE END

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