Renovating Your Writing

Shaping Ideas and Arguments into Clear, Concise, and Compelling Messages

Richard Kallan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351737593
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Sprachen & Linguistik
• Subtopic: Kommunikationswissenschaften

Renovating Your Writing outlines the principles of effective composition by focusing on the essential skill set and mindset every successful writer must possess. Now in its second edition, this novel text provides readers with unique strategies for crafting and revising their writing, whether for school, work, or play. The new edition emphasizes, in particular, the importance of the writer embracing a rhetorical perspective, distinguishing between formal and social media compositional styles, and appreciating the effort needed to produce clear, concise, and compelling messages.

PART
I
Strategies, Tactics, and Tips

1 Constructing Sentences

When you write, it helps to envision yourself as a verbal architect charged with creatively using all the materials (words) at your disposal to build structures, ascending in size (sentences, paragraphs, and pages). Like all good architectural works, these structures should function effectively and efficiently, while exhibiting a pleasing aesthetic inviting to visitors. You must design and construct sentences that are clear, concise, and compelling.

Let’s start with what is meant by a sentence.

Distinguishing between Complete and Incomplete Sentences

To know what constitutes a sentence is to understand the terms commonly used to express its defining characteristics.

A complete sentence features one or more independent clauses. An independent clause is a related word grouping that can stand alone as a sentence because it (1) includes a subject and a predicate and (2) expresses a complete thought.

The subject is the who or what that initiates or receives whatever is happening in the sentence. The predicate describes the happening; it commences with a verb, which most often is an action.

I [subject] enjoy [verb] my writing class.

enjoy my writing class = the predicate

Other times, the verb establishes a condition by serving as a linking verb that, in essence, functions much like an equal sign to connect the subject and the condition.

Writing [subject] is [linking verb] fun [condition].

is fun = the predicate

Occasionally, the subject of a sentence is implied.

Run! (The implied subject of the command is you.)

Run = the predicate

The predicate comprises the verb and usually one or more of the following:

• a direct object—the recipient of the verb’s action;

• an indirect object—the recipient to whom or for whom the action was intended;

• a complement—one or more words that essentially either (a) renames the subject or the direct object or (b) describes the subject or the direct object; and

• modifiers—one or more words that modify the verb portion of the predicate. Words and word groupings that modify verbs usually take the form of adverbs, adverbial clauses, and prepositional phrases (reviewed in Box 1.1).

Sometimes, the predicate includes only a verb. A verb-only predicate is possible when the sentence features an intransitive verb—a verb that requires no object or complement to complete the thought and form a complete sentence. For example: He died. I cried. She celebrated. (Died, cried, and celebrated are intransitive verbs.) A transitive verb, on the other hand, requires a direct object to complete the thought.

Lucy [subject] bought [transitive verb] a composition book [direct object].

Lucy [subject] loaned [transitive verb] Hazyl [indirect object] her composition book [direct object].

Box 1.1 Common Verb Modifiers

Adverb. A word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. When an adverb modifies a verb, it describes when, where, why, how, how often/to what degree, and under what conditions the action/condition occurred. I quickly [adverb] wrote [verb] three papers. When an adverb modifies either an adjective or another adverb, it embellishes or elaborates upon the adjective or adverb. I wrote an extremely [adverb] long [adjective] paper. I wrote this paper extremely [adverb] quickly [adverb]. (Note: An adjective is a word that describes a noun or a pronoun by qualifying or quantifying it. A noun names a person, place, thing, activity, quality, or concept; a pronoun refers to, or replaces, a noun.)

Adverbial clause. A dependent clause that functions as an adverb. I submitted my paper before I realized it was for the wrong class [adverbial clause]. I included 134 footnotes in my paper because I thought it would help my grade [adverbial clause].

Prepositional phrase. A modifying phrase beginning with a preposition (a word such as above, across, around, at, behind, below, between, by, down, from, in, of, on, onto, out, over, since, to, through, toward, up, with, and within) that normally functions as an adjective or adverb. My paper comprised Facebook evidence of the highest quality [prepositional phrase functioning as an adjective]. I wrote my paper on my way to class [prepositional phrase functioning as an adverb].

More examples of subjects with predicates:

• The plural of ellipsis [subject] is [linking verb] ellipses [complement that renames the subject; also known as a predicate noun].

• Punctuation [subject] is [linking verb] easy [complement that describes the subject; also known as a predicate adjective].

• She [subject] considered [transitive verb] fine literature [direct object] her salvation [complement that renames the direct object].

• He [subject] found [transitive verb] his 6th grade grammar book [direct object] [complement that describes the direct object].

• He [subject] footnoted [transitive verb] his paper [direct object] carefully [adverbial modifier].

• She [subject] completed [transitive verb] her research [direct object] in the old campus library [prepositional phrase modifier].

Along with having a subject and a predicate, a complete sentence expresses a complete thought: a “finished” declaration, exclamation/ command, or question. Note how these sentences have a subject and a predicate but remain incomplete:

• Although I love to write.

• When class starts.

• If I may ask.

Each sentence is incomplete because the writer begins but never finishes the larger thought the sentence structure promises. Instead, we have three dependent (or subordinate) clauses. A dependent (or subordinate) clause contains a subject and a predicate, but it does not express a complete thought. Unable to stand alone, a dependent clause must precede or follow an independent clause to form a complete sentence. Dependent clauses are introduced with subordinating conjunctions, such as after, although, because, before, how, if, provided (that), since, supposing, unless, until, when, whether, wherever, while.

Incomplete sentence:	Although I love to write.
Complete sentence:	Although I love to write, I don’t always get good grades on my papers.
Complete sentence:	I don’t always get good grades on my papers, although I love to write.

(Sometimes, as in this example, the dependent clause can be revised into a complete, albeit narrower-meaning, sentence by simply eliminating the subordinating word. Dependent clause: Although I love to write. Independent clause: I love to write.)

Incomplete sentence:	When class starts.
Complete sentence:	When class starts, students must be present and prepared!
Complete senten...