Writing Tools
50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer
Chapter One
TOOL 1
Begin sentences with subjects and
verbs.
Make meaning early, then let weaker elements
branch to the right.
Imagine each sentence you write printed on the world's widest piece
of paper. In English, a sentence stretches from left to right. Now imagine
this. A writer composes a sentence with subject and verb at the beginning,
followed by other subordinate elements, creating what scholars call a
right-branching sentence.
I just created one. Subject and verb of the main clause join on the left
("a writer composes") while all other elements branch to the right.
Here's another right-branching sentence, written by Lydia Polgreen as the
lead of a news story in the New York Times:
Rebels seized control of Cap Haitien, Haiti's second largest city, on
Sunday, meeting little resistance as hundreds of residents cheered,
burned the police station, plundered food from port warehouses and
looted the airport ... read full excerpt from Writing Tools ebook
