The document provides tips for crafting stylish sentences, including using simpler grammar when thoughts are complex, letting beginnings point back to previous information, ending sentences to point forward to the next idea, using concrete verbs rather than abstract nouns, avoiding overuse of adverbs, and eliminating unnecessary words. Specific examples are given to illustrate revising sentences based on each tip.

1. Sometips for craftingstylishsentences

2. Grammar and Style
Grammar is about rules.
Style is about choices.

3. If your sentences feel tangled, observe this rule: The more
complex your thought is, the simpler your grammar
ought to be.
Don’t double complexity.

4. If your sentences feel tangled, observe this rule: The more
complex your thought is, the simpler your grammar
ought to be.
Democracy has been around since the time of Socrates
and has continued into the present day, in countries such as the
United States, where the citizens hold power under a free
electoral system. Even though democracy operates differently
in different places, all democracies have two characteristic
features, which are that all citizens have equal access to power,
and that all citizens enjoy universally recognized liberties,
including freedom of thought, freedom of expression, and
freedom of speech.
Don’t double complexity.

5. If your sentences feel tangled, observe this rule: The more
complex your thought is, the simpler your grammar
ought to be.
Democracy has been around since Socrates’s day. It
continues to thrive today. Democracy operates differently in
different places. However, all democracies share two
characteristic features. First, all citizens have equal access to
power. Second, all citizens enjoy universally recognized liberties.
These liberties include freedom of thought, of expression, and
of speech.
Don’t double complexity.

6. When she was twenty, her father died. She heard of a job at the
Tupelo Garment Plant. It paid two dollars a day for a twelve-
hour workday. There was a bus to pick up the girls who lived out
in the country. But not long after starting work she decided to
move to town. She settled herself and her family on Kelly Street
in the little community above the highway, in East Tupelo. Her
uncles Sims and Gains Mansell already lived there. Gains co-
pastored the tiny new First Assembly of God Church that had
sprung up in a tent on a vacant lot. That was where she met
Vernon Presley.
Use sentence variety
intentionally, to enhance
meaning and create emphasis.

7. When she was twenty, her father died, and she heard of a job at
the Tupelo Garment Plant that paid two dollars a day for a
twelve-hour workday. There was a bus to pick up the girls who
lived out in the country, but not long after starting work she
decided to move to town, and she settled herself and her family
on Kelly Street in the little community above the highway, in
East Tupelo, where her uncles Sims and Gains Mansell already
lived and Gains co-pastored the tiny new First Assembly of God
Church that had sprung up in a tent on a vacant lot. That was
where she met Vernon Presley.
Use sentence variety
intentionally, to enhance
meaning and create emphasis.

8. Let beginnings point back.
Use the beginning of your sentences to refer to (a) what you’ve
already mentioned or (b) knowledge that you can assume you
and your reader readily share.

9. Use the beginning of your sentences to refer to (a) what you’ve
already mentioned or (b) knowledge that you can assume you
and your reader readily share.
Example: John Oliver is perhaps the most accomplished satirist
working today. Satire, as mentioned previously, attacks those in
power in the name of truth.
Let beginnings point back.

10. Use the beginning of your sentences to refer to (a) what you’ve
already mentioned or (b) knowledge that you can assume you
and your reader readily share.
Example: John Oliver is perhaps the most accomplished satirist
working today. Satire, as mentioned previously, attacks those in
power in the name of truth.
Revised: Satire attacks those in power in the name of truth.
Perhaps the most accomplished satirist working today is John
Oliver.
Let beginnings point back.

11. Use the beginning of your sentences to refer to (a) what you’ve
already mentioned or (b) knowledge that you can assume you
and your reader readily share.
Example: The number of wounded and dead in World War I
exceeded all the other wars in European history. One of the
reasons for the lingering animosity between some nations today
is the memory of this terrible carnage.
Let beginnings point back.

12. Use the beginning of your sentences to refer to (a) what you’ve
already mentioned or (b) knowledge that you can assume you
and your reader readily share.
Example: The number of wounded and dead in World War I
exceeded all the other wars in European history. One of the
reasons for the lingering animosity between some nations today
is the memory of this terrible carnage.
Revised: Of all the wars in European history up to that point,
none exceeded World War I in the number of wounded and
dead. The memory of this terrible carnage is one of the reasons
for the animosity between some European nations today.
Let beginnings point back.

13. Let endings point forward.
Put your most important idea at the end of your sentence, as
well as the information you intend to develop in the next
sentence.

14. Put your most important idea at the end of your sentence, as
well as the information you intend to develop in the next
sentence.
Example: I crashed the car last Saturday afternoon, on my way
home from a trip to the supermarket and the Laundromat. I
escaped without a scratch, though the car was totaled.
Let endings point forward.

15. Put your most important idea at the end of your sentence, as
well as the information you intend to develop in the next
sentence.
Example: I crashed the car last Saturday afternoon, on my way
home from a trip to the supermarket and the Laundromat. I
escaped without a scratch, though the car was totaled.
Revised: Last Saturday afternoon, on my way home from a trip
to the supermarket and the Laundromat, I crashed the car. The
car was totaled, but I escaped without a scratch.
Let endings point forward.

16. Put your most important idea at the end of your sentence, as
well as the information you intend to develop in the next
sentence.
Example: President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April
14, 1865, while watching a play at Ford’s Theater. The nation
was shocked by this act of violence.
Let endings point forward.

17. Put your most important idea at the end of your sentence, as
well as the information you intend to develop in the next
sentence.
Example: President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April
14, 1865, while watching a play at Ford’s Theater. The nation
was shocked by this act of violence.
Revised: On April 14, 1865, while watching a play at Ford’s
Theater, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. This act
of violence shocked the nation.
Let endings point forward.

18. Put your verbs to work.
1. Be concrete
To express actions and conditions, use specific verbs,
adverbs, or adjectives rather than abstract nouns.

19. Put your verbs to work
1. Be concrete
To express actions and conditions, use specific verbs,
adverbs, or adjectives rather than abstract nouns.
The term ACTION here includes physical actions (e.g., walking,
talking, raining) as well as non-physical ones (believing, caring,
analyzing). The term CONDITION refers to a “state of being:”
e.g., “The sun is larger than the moon,” “My brother stands at 6
feet, 2 inches”

20. Put your verbs to work.
1. Be concrete
To express actions and conditions, use specific verbs,
adverbs, or adjectives rather than abstract nouns.
ABSTRACT NOUNS are verbs turned into nouns.

21. Put your verbs to work.
1. Be concrete
To express actions and conditions, use specific verbs,
adverbs, or adjectives rather than abstract nouns.
ABSTRACT NOUNS are verbs turned into nouns.
“investment”  “to invest”

22. Put your verbs to work.
1. Be concrete
To express actions and conditions, use specific verbs,
adverbs, or adjectives rather than abstract nouns.
ABSTRACT NOUNS are verbs turned into nouns.
“investment”  “to invest”
“interpretation”  “to interpret”

23. Put your verbs to work.
1. Be concrete
To express actions and conditions, use specific verbs,
adverbs, or adjectives rather than abstract nouns.
ABSTRACT NOUNS are verbs turned into nouns.
“investment”  “to invest”
“interpretation”  “to interpret”
“sight”  “to see”

24. Put your verbs to work.
Abstract: We had a discussion of the matter.

25. Put your verbs to work.
Abstract: We had a discussion of the matter.
Concrete: We discussed the matter.

26. Put your verbs to work.
Abstract: We had a discussion of the matter.
Concrete: We discussed the matter.
Abstract: A review was done of the relevant regulations.

27. Put your verbs to work.
Abstract: We had a discussion of the matter.
Concrete: We discussed the matter.
Abstract: A review was done of the relevant regulations.
Concrete: The team reviewed the relevant regulations.

28. Put your verbs to work.
Abstract: We had a discussion of the matter.
Concrete: We discussed the matter.
Abstract: A review was done of the relevant regulations.
Concrete: The team reviewed the relevant regulations.
Abstract: The intention of the committee is the improvement of
the company morale.

29. Put your verbs to work.
Abstract: We had a discussion of the matter.
Concrete: We discussed the matter.
Abstract: A review was done of the relevant regulations.
Concrete: The team reviewed the relevant regulations.
Abstract: The intention of the committee is the improvement of
the company morale.
Concrete: The committee intends to improve company morale.

30. Put your verbs to work.
2. Don’t overwork your adverbs
Use adverbs, if at all, to change the meaning of verbs,
rather than to amplify or intensify them.
The blast completely destroyed the church office.
Elvis gyrated wildly before his fans.
Maria ran quickly to class.
The spy peered furtively through the bushes.

31. Put your verbs to work.
2. Don’t overwork your adverbs
Use adverbs, if at all, to change the meaning of verbs,
rather than to amplify or intensify them.
The blast destroyed the church office.
Elvis gyrated before his fans.
Maria ran to class.
The spy peered through the bushes.

32. Put your verbs to work.
2. Don’t overwork your adverbs
Use adverbs, if at all, to change the meaning of verbs,
rather than to amplify or intensify them.
The blast nearly destroyed the church office.
Elvis gyrated listlessly before his fans.
Maria ran reluctantly to class.
The spy peered blindly through the bushes.

33. Put your verbs to work.
Black-clad and white-clad nuns silently prayed. They choked up
tearfully. The long years on the Bowery had not nearly stolen
Laurence Stroetz’s touch. Blindness made his fingers stumble
clumsily down to the violin bridge, but they recovered. The
music died quietly and the audience applauded politely. The old
violinist bowed deeply and his sunken cheeks smiled happily.

34. Put your verbs to work.
Black-clad and white-clad nuns silently prayed. They choked up
tearfully. The long years on the Bowery had not nearly stolen
Laurence Stroetz’s touch. Blindness made his fingers stumble
clumsily down to the violin bridge, but they recovered. The
music died quietly and the audience applauded politely. The old
violinist bowed deeply and his sunken cheeks smiled happily.
Black-clad and white-clad nuns moved lips in silent prayer. They
choked up. The long years on the Bowery had not stolen
Laurence Stroetz’s touch. Blindness made his fingers stumble
down to the violin bridge, but they recovered. The music died
and the audience pattered applause. The old violinist bowed
and his sunken cheeks creased in a smile.
~ Meyer Berger, New York Times

35. Eliminate wordiness.
WORDINESS: When there are words in your sentences
that don’t add anything to the sentences’ meaning.
The opposite of “wordy” is “concise.”

36. Eliminate wordiness.
Wordy: The dogs who were barking outside in the alley next to
my house kept me up and awake all night long.

37. Eliminate wordiness.
Wordy: The dogs who were barking outside in the alley next to
my house kept me up and awake all night long.
Concise: The dogs barking in the alley kept me up all night.

38. Eliminate wordiness.
Wordy: My sister is a nice, kind person who cannot understand
or comprehend how other people in our town can be so mean
and cruel to people.

39. Eliminate wordiness.
Wordy: My sister is a nice, kind person who cannot understand
or comprehend how other people in our town can be so mean
and cruel to people.
Concise: My sister is a nice person who cannot understand how
others can be so mean.

40. Eliminate wordiness.
Wordy: The struggle for liberty and freedom is a struggle that
has gone on for a very long time indeed.

41. Eliminate wordiness.
Wordy: The struggle for liberty and freedom is a struggle that
has gone on for a very long time indeed.
Concise: The struggle for liberty has gone on for a long time.