Write clear sentences

Sentences are the building blocks of writing. They are the smallest units of information in writing which will add up to create your entire text. Therefore, writing clear and well-structured sentences is essential for writing clearly.

Elements of a sentence: clauses, subjects, and verbs

To write clear sentences that make sense and are grammatically correct, you need to know the elements of a sentence and how they are used to structure sentences.

The basic grammatical building block of a sentence is a clause. A clause is a group of words that typically contains a subject and a verb.

  • a subject, which  is a word or group of words representing the person, item or concept performing the action expressed in the clause (e.g. “Sarah” in “Sarah finished her PhD”.)
  • a verb, which expresses an action, an occurrence, or a state of being (e.g. “finished” in “Sarah finished her PhD”.).

Types of clauses

Clauses are of two types:

  • independent clauses which are also referred to as main clauses; and,
  • dependent clauses which are also referred to as subordinate clauses.

An independent clause expresses a full idea and can stand alone as a complete sentence as shown in the following example:

Example 1: Medical scientists [subject] adopt [verb] advances in research to solve clinical problems.

On the other hand, a dependent clause cannot stand on its own as a full sentence. It’s function is to add more information to the independent clause. Therefore, it needs to be connected to a main clause to form a full sentence. This is why it is called a ‘dependent clause’. Let’s look at an example:

Example 2: because they [subject] want [verb] to save lives and improve the quality of life of patients

Example 2 contains a subject and a verb similar to the independent clause in Example 1. However, unlike Example 1, Example 2 is not a full sentence on its own and needs to be linked to an independent clause to form a complete sentence.

This is because Example 2 starts with the word ‘because’ which is called a subordinating conjunction.

Linking your clauses

To link your independent and dependent clauses, you can use linking words or phrases like “as,” or “in order to”, known as s subordinating conjunctions. Subordinating conjunctions signal a cause-and-effect relationship or a shift in time and place between the dependent and independent clause. Some common examples of subordinating conjunctions are:

as, since, because, therefore, hence, unless, before, after, until, despite, although, though, even though, while, when, whenever, where, wherever, whereas, in order to, as long as, as if, even if, if, rather than, due to, provided that.

Subordinating conjunctions are often placed at the beginning of the dependent clause. Therefore, spotting these words can be a good clue to identify dependent clauses.