Misarranging - positioning the words poorly, and thereby creating ambiguity.
Overloading - cramming too much and often unrelated information in a single sentence.
Misarranging - Positioning of Words
Choosing the right words is not enough. You have to position them correctly as well. A slight mispositioning of a single word, and your sentence can convey a totally different meaning.
"Write down your ideas about gardening on a postcard." Incorrect
What you actually meant was
"Write down on a postcard, your ideas about gardening." Correct
The rule of thumb for positioning is this: a word or phrase should stand as close as possible to any other word or phrase related to it in meaning or grammar. The main risk in defying this very simple rule is - ambiguity. Let's talk about two of such ambiguities:
Uncertain range - according to its position in the sentence, a word can apply to varying range of elements within the sentence.
"He had only two rotting teeth."
Can be interpreted in following two ways, making it ambiguous.
1) "He had only two (rotting) teeth."
2) "Most of his teeth were perfectly healthy - only two of them were rotting."
Thoughtless brevity - The lazy omission of words and the overzealous attempt to pack too much meaning into a little space is responsible for many an ambiguity. Here's a classic example
"He likes me more than you."
Does it imply
"He likes me more than he likes you."
Or
"He likes me more than you do."
Overloading - Length of Sentence
An English sentence in
theory can grow indefinitely long. But in general, the longer and
more complex a sentence grows, the more difficult it is for the
reader to understand it. While short sentences produce a clearer
and more easily digestible writing, a succession of very short
sentences tends to grate on the ear. Therefore, most good everyday
writing combines fairly short and reasonably long sentences into a
smooth-flowing sequence that draws no attention to itself but
serves purely as the vehicle for meaning. To avoid writing long and
straggly sentences, try these simple tests and techniques:
1) Check the frequency of full stops. If you notice a series of three or more wide lines without a full stop or any other punctuation marks that can indicate the end of a sentence (question mark or exclamation mark), sound the alarm bells. Inspect the sentence thoroughly and try splitting it into multiple sentences.
2) Check the frequency of linking words. Just when the sentence is drawing to a close a hurried writer often artificially prolongs it by scribbling the word and or because or which, developing a new line of thought. Sometimes the simple tricks of replacing because with colon, and with full stop or semicolon can effectively remove this conjunctions and break down the large sentence into smaller chunks.
3) Look out for the 'comma splice'. Sometimes two distinct statements, clumsily jammed into a single sentence, are linked not even by the conjunction and but by a simple comma. The result is a 'comma splice' - a much criticized error of style or usage. To reflect the independence of the ideas falsely clubbed together by comma in such a sentence, the comma needs to be replaced with a full stop, colon or semicolon.
4) Above all, say one thing at a time. An old school rule runs: One idea per sentence. Take care not to overload a sentence; try to keep separate ideas separated.
Finally, try out these two simple tricks to improve the effectiveness and appeal of your sentence.
1) Put the weight near the front. Get to the point as quickly as possible - whether in report, a paragraph, or a sentence (unless you are writing a mystery novel!). Now consider the previous statement rewritten as :
"Unless you are writing a mystery novel, whether in report, a paragraph, or a sentence; get to the point as quickly as possible."
See how it looses its clarity and impact.
2)
Prefer using active voice over
passive. If you can express a particular idea adequately in
both the active and the passive voice, you should usually use the
active voice, so long as you can do so without impairing the
meaning or emphasis.
The following sentence is virtually identical to the previous one in the meaning but not so in impact.
"If a particular idea can be expressed adequately in both the active and the passive voice, it is recommended that the active voice usually be used, so long as that can be done without the meaning or emphasis being impaired."
References:
Reader's Digest "How to Write and Speak Better"
