In my opinion, knowing what not to do is at least as important as knowing what to do. In my last post, we discussed a few different ways to write sentences; in this post, we will discuss a few things to avoid.

First, the comma splice; a.k.a. the run-on sentence. This occurs when you try to join two or more independent clauses with only a comma. For example: I love cats, they are cute and furry. You have three options for fixing this:

1. You can make two separate sentences using a period: I love cats. They are cute and furry.
2. You can join the two thoughts using a semicolon: I love cats; they are cute and furry.
3. You can add a conjunction between the two ideas: I love cats because they are cute and furry.

Which method you use depends on what you are trying to accomplish with your writing. I personally don’t like multiple short sentences in a row unless I am trying to be extra clear or create tension in my writing, so I probably wouldn’t turn “I love cats, they are cute and furry” into two sentences. I generally prefer semicolons over conjunctions, but again, it depends on what I am trying to accomplish.

The second thing to try to avoid is a dangling modifier. A modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that clarifies, describes, or adds detail to another word; a modifier “dangles” when the word it is supposed to describe is missing or too far away. For example: Exhausted from the adventure, curled up and went to sleep.

The way the above sentence is written, we don’t know who curled up and went to sleep. That detail needs to be added in: Exhausted from the adventure, the cat curled up and went to sleep.

Third, watch out for a lack of parallel structure. Parallel structure is the repetition of a grammatical form within a sentence; breaking the pattern makes the sentence clunky. An example of a lack of parallel structure is “The cat likes eating, sleeping, and to play;” this is easily fixed by changing the sentence to “The cat likes eating, sleeping, and playing.”

The next thing to avoid is using the passive voice too much. In passive voice, the subject is being acted upon, rather than taking action. It’s not “wrong” per se, but too much passive voice makes writing feel weak. An example of passive voice is “This blog post was written by my cat.” To rectify this, you would write “My cat wrote this blog post.”

Finally, while there is nothing wrong with writing complex sentences, you want to avoid over-complicating your writing. Don’t use five words where one would do, i.e. “at this point in time” instead of “now.” If there is a simpler way to say something, that’s how you should say it.

Want to practice writing sentences? Leave a comment and let me know what you think of the blog so far 😀