Levels of Writing: Sentences

At last, we arrive at sentences. I have been told that the art of writing is the art of making sentences. When I wrote about phrases, I said that a phrase is like a whole picture. If a phrase is a picture, then a sentence is a video.

Structurally, a sentence requires a subject and a verb. That verb, showing action that takes place over time, is what adds the motion to the thought. Sentences can be as short as two words ("he died") or extend infinitely (I saw the dog that ate the doll that had a dress that...). A sentence can hold as many phrases in it as you can put in them. That is exactly why you need to have a very strong control of your sentences.

In your schooling, sentences get a decent amount of respect. Some of the lessons are good ones. Sentence length is important. We have short attention spans and not a lot of time. Getting to the point is always a good idea. However, we also get bored very easily. If you use the same sentence structure over and over, people will get sick of hearing the same sounds over and over again.

I do believe that sentences should primarily be kept on the short side. We have a tendency to make run-on sentences to try to get as much information out as fast as possible. Sometimes we make sentences that are not run-on, but are still so long that they can't be understood without multiple readings. If you try to make your sentences short, then your sentences will only be medium-length if you go over.

But you should ask yourself, how do I know how long a sentence should be? First, consider what a sentence does. A sentence conveys a fully-formed thought. "I got in my car. I drove to the store. I bought groceries." If you wrote it as "I got in my car and I drove to the store and I bought groceries", it would be unbearable. However, the original isn't very good either. That's because it is the same sentence structure three times; it sounds like a robot talking. That is when you must learn when to combine ideas into larger sentences. "I got in my car, drove to the store, and bought groceries." And from there, you learn how to eliminate useless information to get a slick sentence like "I drove to the store and bought groceries."

I hate to keep giving the same advice, but the best way to learn all of the nuances of sentence construction is to read as many of them as you can and to write as many as you can. There are too many specific examples to collect them all. Learn the principles and how to apply them and you will be ready for anything.