“Tricks of the Trade” for Writers

 Tips To Help Improve The Structure Of Your Sentences

Even the best stories can confuse or bore a reader if the sentences are poorly constructed. Here are a few "tricks" you can use to improve your sentence structure and make your writing more enjoyable to read:

?To avoid sentences or paragraphs which frequently start with a character’s name, look for phrases connected with “and”. Often the first part of a sentence with “and” can be turned into an introductory phrase. For example, “Tom entered the room and sat down on the sofa” can be re-written as “Entering the room, Tom sat down on the sofa”. Introductory phrases can make writing seem less stilted and more interesting to a reader. 

?Not sure if a sentence needs a comma or other punctuation? Try reading the sentence out loud. Your natural voice inflection should tell you if a comma or other punctuation is needed. For example, say the following out loud: “Be quiet!” he ordered, trying to keep his temper under control”.  A slight pause or change in your voice inflection should tell you that a comma is needed after the word “ordered”. In addition, if you said the words “be quiet” in a strong voice, you would recognize that this phrase needs to be emphasized with an exclamation point. 

?Gerunds or phrases which start with gerunds (gerunds are those “ing” words) are almost always separated from the rest of a sentence by a comma. Here are some examples: “Realizing he had been seen, Joe began to run.” "Beth sipped her coffee, savoring the taste."  Not every word which ends in “ing” is a gerund, of course, but take a second look at words which end with those three letters. Those three letters can help you identify where a comma is needed.   

?While writing dialogue without identifying the speaker can be effective, this technique should be used sparingly and never when there are more than two characters involved in a conversation. Authors often “hear” dialogue in their head as they are writing, so they know who is speaking. But readers don’t have that advantage. Identifying the speaker for a line of dialogue insures readers will not be confused. Think of the reader as someone who is surrounded the characters and turns to face each individual as he/she speaks. It is important to make sure the reader knows which way to turn. 

?Using a descriptive verb gives the reader an idea of the character’s emotion, which is another reason why dialogue without a speaker should be used sparingly. For example, if a piece of dialogue is written simply as “I have to go to town”, the reader doesn’t know if the character is feeling urgency, reluctance or simply making a statement. With some kind of hint, the reader may interpret the way the phrase is being said differently from what the author intended. If the phrase is written as “ 'I have to go to town,’ insisted Fred”, the reader understands the speaker’s sense of urgency. 

?It is important to “paint a picture” of what is happening in a story for the reader, but too much exposition can bog down a story and distract a reader from the plot. It isn’t necessary to write out every single action a character takes; leave something for the reader’s imagination. Look at the following sentence: “He walked into the kitchen and grabbed a coffee cup from the shelf, after which he  picked up the coffee pot from the stove and poured the hot liquid from the pot into the cup.” While this certainly tells the reader what the character did, the sentence provides almost too much information. The sentence could be re-written as: “He walked into the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee from the pot on the stove”.  Readers understand the implied action of the character getting the cup, picking up the pot and so on without having to be told.  

?Commas are used to separate a phrase within a sentence. Semi-colons are used to separate two complete but related sentences. It's easy to get confused about which form of punctuation is correct. If you are not sure whether to use a comma or a semi colon, write the two connected phrases as separate sentences. If each phrase can stand on its own - it has a subject, a verb and an objective  - then both phrases are sentences and should be separated by a semi-colon. If one or the other of the phrases can't stand alone, though, then a comma is needed. For example: "Roy stood quietly next to the building; he listened hard for any sound." This example shows two phrases that could stand alone as separate sentences. On the other hand: "Roy stood quietly next to the building, his ears straining for any sound." In this second example, the phrase "his ears straining for any sound" is not a complete sentence (straining is a gerund, not a verb). As a result, the two phrases should be separated by a comma, not a semi-colon.