Here are some pointers to help you construct your essay sentences.
A poorly written sentence can lead to all sorts of misunderstandings, from poor grades for essay writing to upsetting someone with the wrong tone in an email.
Poorly constructed sentences distract readers by being unclear or too wordy and making it difficult for them to understand what is happening within a text, which makes sense because if they don’t know what’s happening, how could they enjoy reading about it!
Different types of errors that confuse include:
- Misused punctuation (such as using “it’s” when one means “it’s”).
- Faulty parallelism (e.g., “He bought two oranges, but she bought three apples.”).
- Dangling participle phrases
Incomplete sentences in essays
In today’s world, one of the most popular ways to communicate is through social media.
Many people write messages on Facebook and Twitter that are often incomplete sentences or fragments because words can be quite brief in this informal style.
However, essays require formal writing, so an essay with many short phrases may not get you a good grade!
What is a sentence?
You may have heard the advice that new writers always make sure they end their sentences with a full stop, exclamation mark, or question mark.
However, this isn’t always the case in informal writing, as punctuation like exclamation marks and question marks are used creatively.
For example: ‘Are you coming to dinner on Friday?
- Yes!
- No way! c)
- I don’t know yet.
This is an easy technique for keeping up interest levels when reading your stories aloud because it makes people want to keep listening until they find out what happens next by creating suspenseful cliff-hangers at regular intervals throughout each sentence.”
Essay Sentences: A unit of meaning
A sentence is a unit of meaning.
Essay Sentences express an idea, like “What on earth?” This expression clearly can be complete in some instances; however, it doesn’t do so all by itself. We would normally need to add something more before that question could be answered satisfactorily (or at least with confidence).
Parts of the sentence: clauses
A sentence must include at least one clause.
The clause contains a verb, a subject, and (sometimes) an object.
A clause might be the whole sentence, or there could be several in it; for example:
- A girl who had been to Glastonbury danced with me Sunday night when I was out clubbing on my birthday – italics show that this is its own complete idea separate from what comes before and after in the same sentence.
- Ben sent Molly many letters over their years together- italics shows that this gives us more information about Ben’s character.
- Julie told you yesterday? Italically means inside of another thought within Julie’s dialogue.
Editing notes: Exceptions to the rules
Completing sentences and using complete thoughts is an important part of essay writing.
Imagine a CV where Personal Assistant described their previous job duties only providing the incomplete sentence: “Duties included:- Diary management.” If you wrote this in essays, it would not be easy to know what they had done and made them qualified for another position or not.
Best Essay Writing Guide: Read!
The best essay writing advice I can give you for learning how to write well in English is reading great literature.
Classics like Dickens, the Brontes, and Somerset Maugham will help teach good sentence structures through osmosis.
Pretty soon, you’ll have a feel for language, and before long, be surprised at what knowledge of grammar has seeped into your subconscious!
You may also find that vocabulary increases as your overall usage improves – making essays easier to construct with confidence from within this newfound linguistic understanding.
With a deep understanding of the student experience, I craft blog content that resonates with young learners. My articles offer practical advice and actionable strategies to help students achieve a healthy and successful academic life.
