Liesl's Blog > Four Quick Ways to Strengthen a Sentence

1. Tell a story. Pick a subject that's short and concrete, preferably human, and pick a verb that's active and precise. If possible, keep your subject and verb close together. Now your sentence is easy to read because it tells a story that the reader can visualize.

2. Create details. You can generate them with the mnemonic ENHANCERS: examples, names, hows, appearances, nots (what's not happening), causes, effects, reasons, sections (individual parts or pieces). Now your sentence is funnier, more exciting, and/or more satisfying because it feels real.

3. Add parallelism. Wherever you can, write pairs and lists in repeating patterns. Now your sentence displays logic, clarity, and authority, so you've gained your reader's trust.

4. Control the order of information. Start with whatever is short, simple, general, concrete, literal, familiar, or expected before moving on to whatever is long, complex, specific, abstract, figurative, unfamiliar, or unexpected. Whenever you can, use chronological order, and order of importance. Put causes before effects, and serious stuff before jokes. End with the best part, especially if it's funny, exciting, or surprising. Now your sentence is a pleasure to read.

If you'd like some one-on-one help in building these habits into your writing, I'm here for you! Reach out to me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

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