How to Master Sentence Structures

Understanding how sentences work – otherwise known as syntax – is in important issue, and it is usually one of the first things new language learners look at when approaching an unfamiliar language.

In writing, especially when writing a foreign language, mastery of sentence structures is even more important than in speech because weak, unclear, and disorganised sentences will undermine the reader’s ability to understand the meaning of the text.

The tasks of proofreading and editing, both of which are essential stages in writing that authors may or may not perform with the assistance of proofreading and editing services, depend on an in-depth knowledge of sentence structures.

Given that proofreaders and editors are adept in terms of their knowledge of syntax and sentence construction, an easy way to improve the quality of your writing is simply to make use of their services.

However, if you cannot afford proofreading and editing services, or if you would prefer to complete the activity yourself (e.g., for learning purposes), reading this article will teach you the key points about sentence structures that are needed for clear writing in English.

 

What is a sentence?

Sentences are strings of clauses.

For example, in English grammar, a complex sentence is said to consist of 1 independent clause + 1 or more subordinate clauses.

 

What is a clause?

A clause is a series of words containing both a subject and a verb. One clause may form a sentence, but sentences usually consist of several clauses that are added together.

For example, an independent clause, which is defined as a clause that could be a grammatical and complete sentence, is shown below:

            We’ll eat lunch at seven.

            James and David helped the Duke.

As another example, a dependent clause, which is defined as a clause that is not a grammatical and complete sentence, is shown as follows:

            …because it was sunny.

Dependent clauses are often referred to as subordinate clauses.

The ellipsis (…) in the above example indicates that some text, not shown, must precede the dependent clause, which gives the clause its name. That is to say, the clause is dependent on (or subordinate to) to another clause for its full meaning.

If we add another dependent clause (or an independent clause, as below) to this, we will have a complete sentence:

            The roads were in good condition yesterday because it was sunny.

 

What are the types of sentence structure?

To master sentence structure, and thereby to improve your writing (and make life easier for your proofreader or editor), it’s worth knowing about the four types of sentence structure.

As explained already, a sentence is a string of clauses. The four possible types of sentence are:

·         Simple: 1 independent clause

·         Compound: 2 or more independent clauses

·         Complex: 1 independent clause + 1 or more dependent clauses

·         Compound-complex: 2 or more independent clauses + 1 or more dependent clauses

By varying your use of sentences and applying different sentence structures in your writing, you can create much more interesting, descriptive, and powerful text.

5 tips for blog- editing and proofreading

Given the widespread nature of the Internet, it’s easy for anyone to blog online. This means that any individual has the ability to engage with millions of people at once. While this comes with many clear advantages, the importance of properly proofreading and editing blog posts is often overlooked. Proofreading and editing services offer a convenient and rapid way to improve your blog post, but it is also important to know how to complete these tasks yourself, should you ever need to do so. Therefore, this article presents a few tips that you can follow to ensure that your blog posts are edited and proofread in the most effective way.

 

1. Editing for context

Depending on who you are, the tone and style of language that you use should be different. Furthermore, blog posts express something about an individual’s personality, and so it is all the more important to pay attention to the question of tone and style. The fact that any other person can find your blog post and read it online should also cause you to guard your personal details. With these issues in mind, you should edit your writing to remove thoughts, ideas, and phrases that you may not really want an audience to read.

 

2. Check your facts

There are no gatekeepers to publishing an article on the Internet. For this reason, you are not required to use citations or references in your article, and you do not have to conform to a specific writing or formatting style. Nevertheless, one of the basic requirements is to ensure that all the factual statements given in your blog post are accurate and correct. Therefore, as you proofread and edit your blog post before publishing it, remember to Google any of the factual statements you make.

 

3. Concision is key

When you write, edit, and proofread your blog post, try to think about what you want to see as a reader. If you do, you’ll quickly become aware that the shorter, the better. You may be familiar with the abbreviation “TL;DR” (“too long; didn’t read”), which is often used to indicate that the length of a blog post is excessive. If you’ve seen this phrase being used online, you’ll know what it signals as a reader, and so as a writer and editor, you should try not to fall into the trap. Do not fill in the gaps with, repetetive, padded out sentences and paragraphs.

 

4. Read your blog post backward

This is an age-old trick in the proofreading community. It might sound like something an inexperienced person would do to ensure that they proofread their work correctly. However, even the most experienced proofreaders still use the backward-reading technique to improve their accuracy.

 

 

Quality proofreading services in London, UK

Professional proofreading services are available in most of the UK's major cities and the competitive competition within London is strong, but it is also true that services can be used from these companies using digital channels. As a matter of fact, it is common for businesses, authors, and speakers of languages other than English to order proofreading services over the Internet, and a growing number of these services are reliable, efficient, and affordable. Since the online proofreading space is so competitive, prices are falling and quality is increasing rapidly, both in terms of the convenience and price of the available services.

Newcomers to the proofreading space are likely to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of available service offerings. For example, if you enter a search term such as “proofreading services” into your search engine of choice (e.g., Google, Yahoo, or Bing), you will notice that hundreds, if not thousands, of hits are returned. The varied nature of the available proofreading services can also be problematic for newcomers. As a case in point, if you read the service descriptions of several professional proofreading services, it is typically the case that services vary in terms of price and levels of detail.

For people who are living in London or just visiting the historic city, it is worth remembering that countless famous and influential writers, editors, and proofreaders live in the city, along with prominent companies that specialise in providing professional proofreading services. This has been true for years, which is especially clear when considering the impressive list of writers, authors, and other creative people who have lived and worked in London (e.g., William Shakespeare).

Additionally, in a city where so many official business communications, research initiatives, and professional activities take place, a considerable number of proofreading companies, as well as freelancers, have emerged to cater to growing demand for high-quality content.In the past, it was common for companies to recruit permanent proofreaders, editors, and copy writers, who would be assigned duties ranging from re-organising business plans and grant applications to proofreading, editing, or paraphrasing press releases, official reports, or presentations.Today, however, companies in London can use the Internet to recruit specialised proofreaders from nearby companies.

Proofreaders are valuable for several reasons, whether you need help improving the readability and clarity of your college or university work, your creative projects, or your business-related documents.If you are interested in recruiting the services of a professional proofreader, especially if you want to narrow your search to a high-quality London-based company or freelancer,it is important to consider the importance of their reliability and effectiveness. Although most proofreaders will offer a guarantee that they will correct any deficits you find in their work free of charge,receiving a correct-first-time document is often a key demand for mission-critical writing.