Effective communication is a necessary part of life. It’s important for fostering relationships, meeting new people, and progressing in your career.
But, speaking is not the only form of
communication that is vital to understand. Writing is just as important.
English can be a very difficult language to learn. Many words have multiple meanings with the same spelling. Other words sound the same but mean completely different things.
English has tons of grammar and sentence structure rules to remember. Even basic English sentences can be confusing.
Having powerful written English is absolutely vital if you are using the Internet to market your business. If your content is full of errors and inconsistencies, then people will not trust your business. But, refining your English skills will greatly increase your chances for success.
Read on in order to learn five tips that will improve your English sentence structure.
Practice helps develop basic English skills
1. Don’t Use Sentence Fragments
“To write better.”
That sentence doesn’t make sense on its own. That is a sentence fragment, which is just a fancy way of saying that it is incomplete.
A much clearer alternative would be: “Make sure you study English mechanics in order write better.”
Incomplete sentences like the one above confuse the reader, and you should never use them in your writing.
2. Avoid Using Passive Voice
When writing a sentence in active voice, the subject is performing an action. A simple example would be “The boy kicked the ball.”
When writing in passive voice, the subject has an action done to it. A sentence like this might be “The test was failed by the entire class.”
In general, you should utilize active voice because it makes the meaning more clear for the reader. It also eliminates any confusion that passive voice could cause.
For instance, a sentence that passive voice makes more complicated would be “the house keys were searched for by Tim to open the door.”
With an active voice revision, it would say “Tim searched for the house keys to open the door.”
It may seem confusing at first, but your writing will be much easier to read.
Still lost? We have a guide that can help.
3. Use Linking Words
Every sentence should not be short. This makes the writing sound dull. You will sound like a robot.
Linking words help connect two sentences together, and they will also give your writing more life.
Common linking words are “thus,” “but,” and “because.” Let’s take a look at “because” for a moment.
Here, we have two basic sentences:
“Max could not go to the park. He did not do his homework.”
Using “because” as a linking word, we get this: “Max could not go to the park because he did not do his homework.”
This will help your writing flow better, which is very important for keeping your reader engaged.
4. Use Commas to Create Compound Sentences
Speaking of sentence flow, compound sentences are a great way to get a point across without sounding robotic. Once again, this will also help keep your reader’s attention.
Let’s take a look at a compound sentence that uses both a comma and a linking word:
“Since Sarah did not pay her taxes, IRS investigators came knocking on her front door.”
This is a far better approach than “Sarah did not pay her taxes. IRS investigators came knocking on her front door.”
Using a comma to turn two sentences into one sentence will help improve the way your writing sounds to the reader.
5. Read Out Loud
After you’ve written your content, take a moment to read through it out loud. Often, writers will read their work out loud and discover that there are some parts that just don’t make sense.
While you may be eager to post or send off your writing, the extra time you take will help make sure it is up to standard for your readers.
Mastering Basic English Sentences
Even basic English sentences can be tough because of all the rules you have to follow. But, after enough learning, it will become automatic.
For more important information on the English language, visit our blog.
