Clarity, Part 2

Continuing the revising process (I'm almost done, though!), I looked through Rules for Writers for a few more topics to refine the syntax and grammar of my writing.  These topics include Active Verbs, Mixed Constructions, Emphasis, and Parallel Ideas.

McPhee, Nic. "2008-1-26 (Editing a paper) - 31." 1/26/08 via Flickr.
Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License.

Passive and active tone are not new concepts for me, and generally I can recognize when I'm writing in passive tone.  Their explanation of when to use passive tone was useful, because having a concrete description helps me understand grammar concepts better.  Additionally, learning how to find more specific verbs helped, because that also relates to tightening wordy sentences.  I know there are definitely places in my QRG I can cut out words like "was" and change a noun into a verb.

I also have learned previously to express parallel series in the same grammatical format, but this is a good reminder for me.  I often write with parallel structure, listing multiple examples, and sometimes I forget to retain the same format.  The idea of "balancing ideas presented in pairs" was something I was less familiar with.  Parallel structure in pairs linked with conjunctions sometimes are not as easy for me to recognize, so I don't realize I should be using consistent grammatical structure throughout the sentence.

I don't think I consciously realized that how often I use the constructions "is where" or "is when."  When I think about it, I know those phrases sound weak, but when I'm writing, sometimes they come naturally.  Forcing myself to look through my writing and find these mixed constructions will make my writing less awkward.

I really liked the Emphasis section, because subordinating clauses can be kind of like a formula.  It's easy for me to understand a sentence structure when I can look for specific words in the sentence, and I know where to place them.  I know that writing can't all be formulaic, because then it would become boring, but in some cases having that guidance is really helpful.  I also learned about excessive coordination, and how it's more effective to emphasize only one idea in a sentence, not multiple ones.  Adding a subordinate clause can give the sentence more structure and a clear point.