{"id":71,"date":"2018-05-29T19:26:22","date_gmt":"2018-05-29T23:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/cmn279\/chapter\/4-3-forming-effective-sentences\/"},"modified":"2023-12-19T20:54:17","modified_gmt":"2023-12-20T01:54:17","slug":"4-3-forming-effective-sentences","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/cmn279\/chapter\/4-3-forming-effective-sentences\/","title":{"raw":"4.3: Forming Effective Sentences","rendered":"4.3: Forming Effective Sentences"},"content":{"raw":"
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Learning Objectives<\/h3>\r\n3. Plan, write, revise, and edit short documents and messages that are organized, complete, and tailored to specific audiences.\r\n

i. Recognize and use basic patterns of standard English.\r\niii.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Incorporate elements of business writing style.\r\niv. Apply proper use of sentence structure, grammar, and punctuation.\r\nv. Craft unified and coherent sentences and paragraphs.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nOnce you\u2019ve put words on the screen with research material and outlined the shape of your content with point-form notes, building around that research and fleshing out those notes into correct English sentences should be quick and dirty composition\u2014\u201cquick\u201d because speed-typing helps get your thoughts down almost as soon as they occur to you, and \u201cdirty\u201d because it\u2019s fine if those typed-out thoughts are garbage writing rife with errors. A talented few might be able think and draft in perfectly correct sentences, but that\u2019s not our goal at this stage.\r\n\r\nAs long as you clean it all up later, what\u2019s important during the drafting stage is that you get your ideas down quickly to avoid losing any in the nitty-gritty bog of perfectionist composition. If you\u2019re still working on speeding up your typing (it can be a lifelong process!), however, consider using your smartphone\u2019s voice recorder to capture what you want to say out loud, then transcribe it into somewhat proper sentences by playing it back sentence by sentence. Correcting that writing as you draft is a waste of time because, in the first substage of editing (see \u00a75.1<\/a> below), you may find yourself deleting whole sentences and even paragraphs that you meticulously perfected at the drafting stage. As we shall see in Chapter 5<\/a>, scrupulously proof-editing for spelling, grammar, and mechanical errors\u2014as well as the finer points of style\u2014should be one of your final tasks in the whole writing process. At this stage, however, you at least need some sentences to work with.\r\n\r\nFashioning effective sentences requires an understanding of sentence structure. Now, the eyes of many native English speakers glaze over as soon as English grammar terminology rears its head. But think of it this way: to survive as a human being you must take care of your health, which means occasionally going to the doctor for help with the injuries and conditions that inevitably afflict you; to understand these, you listen to your doctor\u2019s explanations of how they work in your body, and you add to your vocabulary anatomical terms and processes\u2014words you didn\u2019t need for those processes to function when you were healthy. Now that you need to work to improve your health, however, you need that technical understanding to know how exactly to improve. It\u2019s likewise worth learning grammar terminology because writing mistakes undermine your professionalism, and you won\u2019t know how to write correctly, such as where to put punctuation and where not to, if you don\u2019t know basic sentence structure and the terminology we use to describe it. Trust me, we\u2019ll be using it often throughout this chapter and the next. Many native English speakers who say, \u201cI don\u2019t know what the rule\u2019s called, but I know what looks right\u201d actually can<\/em> improve their writing if they understand more about how it works. Pay close attention throughout the following introductory lesson on sentence structure and variety especially if you\u2019re not entirely confident in your knowledge of grammar.\r\n