How to Fix a Bad Sentence

There are many reasons why a sentence may be a bad one. It may be too wordy, it may not be very informative or coherent, it may even be boring or not engaging.

Whatever the reasons are why you think a given sentence may be good or bad, it’s always worth having a second pair of eyes check over your writing. This is the reason why proofreading services are becoming increasingly popular today.

Using a proofreading service can be a quick way to fix a bad sentence, but it also requires a small investment of time and money. For this reason, this article covers a few tips and rules of thumb that can help you troubleshoot and correct any poorly written sentences you may have.

 

1. Check for errors and double words

The clearest way a sentence can be a ‘bad’ sentence is when it contains an error, such as a double word. Your spell checker will usually catch double words and blatant mistakes for you, but proofreading services are also very helpful if you need something more comprehensive than an automated spell checker.

 

2. Rearrange your sentences

Some sentences strike the reader as ‘bad’ or inappropriate because they don’t fit the context. Therefore, if the flow or coherence of your writing is undermined by poorly organised sentences, switching their order can be a good solution.

For example, when you re-read your paragraph, you may find that the paragraph’s topic sentence is concealed at the end or the middle. This is an example of a poor sentence due to suboptimal placement, and so rearranging the sentence (i.e., moving it to the beginning) can make it a good one.

 

3. Use interesting words

After writing for long enough, some writers eventually become stuck in a rut, where they feel like they are using the same 15 words all over the place.

If this happens, it can damage your sentences by failing to engage the reader. In the context of web content writing, for example, this can be a catastrophe, given the importance of engagement.

To solve this, you can pick up a thesaurus, find some words that are similar to the ones you regularly use, and make a concentrated effort to use those in the future.

 

4. Strive for cohesion at the paragraph level

Some readers may consider a sentence ‘bad’ if it does not link in a clear way to the previous sentence. If this problem is plaguing your sentences, you can use so-called ‘cohesion words’ as a reasonable solution.

For example, if your sentence describes a consequence of an action described in the preceding sentence, the phrase ‘Due to this’ can be used to show this connection clearly. Another reasonable phrase that could be used is ‘As a result.’