{"id":1935,"date":"2011-05-11T16:32:46","date_gmt":"2011-05-11T06:32:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/?p=1935"},"modified":"2011-05-09T16:33:20","modified_gmt":"2011-05-09T06:33:20","slug":"making-your-sentences-effective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/2011\/05\/making-your-sentences-effective\/","title":{"rendered":"Making your sentences effective"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Put a few words together and you have a sentence; put some carefully chosen words together and you have an effective sentence. And effective sentences have much more power in communicating a message and helping your business.<\/p>\n<p>If you look at two sentences saying the same thing, there often is not a right or wrong version. For example, &#8216;Tash is a professional writer based in Australia&#8217; and &#8216;Based in Australia, Tash is a professional writer&#8217; are both perfectly good sentences.<\/p>\n<p>However, one form of a sentence may well be more effective in a particular context. Think about the purpose of the sentence &#8211; is it <a title=\"order of information in instructions\" href=\"http:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/2011\/01\/important-information-comes-first\/\" target=\"_blank\">an instruction<\/a>, a description, an inducement or an explanation? An explanation or instruction needs to be as clear as possible while an inducement may be effective with a hint of mystery.<\/p>\n<p>When reading one of your sentences (or comparing multiple versions of a sentence), the following list may help you determine which is the most effective for your purpose.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>clarity &#8211; can the sentence be easily understood on the first read?<\/li>\n<li>meaning &#8211; does the sentence give the correct meaning? <a title=\"starting with pronouns is not a good idea\" href=\"http:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/2008\/04\/he-isnt-a-good-start\/\" target=\"_blank\">Mixing pronouns<\/a>, <a title=\"keeping writing short and sweet\" href=\"http:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/2010\/07\/short-and-sweet\/\" target=\"_blank\">making it too long<\/a>, over <a title=\"using one punctuation mark at a time\" href=\"http:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/2010\/06\/which-punctuation-mark-do-i-use\/\" target=\"_blank\">using punctuation<\/a> and <a title=\"learn the meaning of words\" href=\"http:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/category\/monday-meanings\/\" target=\"_blank\">inappropriate word use<\/a> can all obscure the meaning<\/li>\n<li>flow &#8211; does the sentence move smoothly or are there bits that break concentration and flow? Of course, a deliberate break in flow can emphasise a point, but generally a <a title=\"maintaining a smooth flow of words and meaning\" href=\"http:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/2010\/06\/maintaining-the-flow-of-ideas\/\" target=\"_blank\">smooth flow is your aim<\/a>. Flow with the surrounding sentences is also important<\/li>\n<li>congruent &#8211; do all the words join into one unit that works logically? do all the words seem to belong there?<\/li>\n<li>concise &#8211; does every word deserve its place in the sentence? If in doubt, try the sentence without that word and see if it is more effective<\/li>\n<li>prominence &#8211; are key words and ideas shown as the most important? Generally, the words at the start and finish of a sentence carry the most weight so that&#8217;s where key words are placed for greatest effect<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When testing your sentences against this list rememebr that reading them out loud can be a very useful tool &#8211; your tongue and ear will pick up issues your eyes may miss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Put a few words together and you have a sentence; put some carefully chosen words together and you have an effective sentence. And effective sentences have much more power in communicating a message and helping your business. If you look at two sentences saying the same thing, there often is not a right or wrong [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[449,304,1229,1076],"class_list":["post-1935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing","tag-context","tag-effective","tag-power","tag-sentence"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1935"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1999,"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1935\/revisions\/1999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordconstructions.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}