The Art Of Writing Powerful Sentences

Whether youre a fiction writer, a journalist or a web content writer, you want your sentences to capture peoples attention. And for that, you need to write powerful sentences that spark curiosity and drive them to continue reading. If you think of sentences as a piece of music which would you rather listen to: music that lifts and moves you as it spans the musical scale or music that drones on in muted monotones? You dont have to be a natural at this. By practicing some of the advice to follow, you can shape better sentences that snag the attention of your readers. Trim the fat The rule of thumb in writing powerful sentences is that less is more. Dont saturate your sentences with drawn out phrases. Be direct and get to the point. Nobody has time to slog through circuitous writing to get to the authors true intentions. Some examples of fat-trimming: Due to the fact that Sally has a cold, she didnt come to work. Sally didnt come to work because she has a cold. I skipped my workout so I could make my daughters soccer game. I skipped my workout to make my daughters soccer game. Lynn is the type of girl who likes to go for long walks. Lynn likes to go for long walks. There was basically no real reason for Johns dismissal. There was no reason for Johns dismissal. The gasoline tank suddenly exploded. The gasoline tank exploded. She came inside of the kitchen and sat down. She entered the kitchen and sat down. Move strong words to the beginning or end The first and last words of a sentence are the most memorable. If your sentences strongest words are in the middle, you can restructure to bring them either to the beginning or the end. Ex 1: The storm caused a big fire and several electrical shortages due to strong winds. Vs. Strong winds caused several electrical shortages and a big fire. The first example starts with â€Å"The storm† and ends with â€Å"winds† vs. the second example that starts with â€Å"Strong winds† and ends with â€Å"fire†. Ex.2 The tiger pounced on the deer and managed to rip its jugular. Vs. Pouncing on the deer, the tiger ripped its jugular. By starting out with the word â€Å"pouncing† you get the readers attention right away. Get to the point Dont write in circles. Dont try to be crafty or sneaky or hide your point in innuendo or double-meaning. Nobody is going to take the time to decipher your complicated sentences. Say it plain and clear or dont say it at all. Ex: It was as if John were trying to fish for some sort of compliment about the quality of his report. Vs. John was fishing for compliments about his reports. Oddly, there were virtually no young-ish men at the firemans bachelor party. Vs. There were few young men at the firemans bachelor party. Dont use fluff Even fiction writers who are allowed a certain license to ramble can fall victim to this one. Make sure that your sentences are there for a reason. Are they moving the story forward? Are they driving the point home? A gourmet meal doesnt include filler and good sentences dont include fluff. For example, if I added this sentence to the above paragraph: Fluff fills up the page but doesnt bring your reader any closer to understanding your message. Is it really necessary? Or has this point already been made by the previous sentences? Get rid of passive voice Passive voice does not make strong sentences. It slows down the flow of information and sounds awkward. Replace your passive voice with action verbs and see what happens: The deers jugular was ripped by the tiger. The tiger ripped the deers jugular. A fire was caused by the storms strong winds. The storms strong winds caused a fire. The child was knocked out by the flyball. The flyball knocked the child out. Choose better verbs â€Å"To be† and â€Å"To have† are some of the first words taught to ESL students. Why is that? Because theyre the most commonly used verbs in the English language. For powerful sentences, you want to forge new terrain. Shelf â€Å"To be† and â€Å"To have† and venture into the wide world of verbs. Check out this list of action verbs for some ideas. Just be sure not to weaken them by putting them in passive voice (see above). Create an image in few words Okay, so youre not going to use fluff, youre not going to use passive voice or extra words. It may seem like Ive taken away all your tools as a writer, leaving you with 5 word sentences that sound plain and robotic. But, believe me, theres a better world waiting for you beyond wordiness. And you can write strong sentences with few words. Hemingway was the master. He claimed that this was the best sentence he ever wrote: â€Å"Baby shoes: for sale, never worn.† It tells a story, creates an image and evokes emotion and has zero fat to trim. Build suspense Yes, you want to get to the point. No, you dont want your individual sentences to be too complex to understand. But as you build a story, you can use good sentences as tools to help build suspense. You want your readers to hunger to know what happens next. Giving them suspense propels them to the next sentence without too much effort on their part. Thats what you want for your writing to be effortless to read. A sentence like: Jack had placed a letter under their door for them to find when they got home to their apartment. †¦can be made more intriguing by adding some suspense: Once inside the apartment, they found a letter shoved under the door. Be provocative Provoke someones anger or applause with polemical sentences. Instead of this: Many intellectuals tend to be atheists. Try this: Unlike believers, many intellectuals are atheists. Here you have a fat-free sentence that gets to the point and doesnt hide an opinion behind objectivity. Great sentences take practice. Good luck working on yours!

Global Warming Essays (1139 words) - Global Warming, Climate Change

Global Warming Essays (1139 words) - Global Warming, Climate Change Global Warming What happens when too much carbon dioxide gets omitted into the Earths atmosphere? The condition known as Global Warming occurs. Global Warming is the rising of the Earths surface temperature due to chemicals in the atmosphere. Global Warming has many threats on the climate and even the health of the people on this planet. Some of these threats include the altering of crop seasons and even effect the way organisms survive on the planet. The first thing I think I should discuss when talking about global warming is what causes it to occur. Gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, which are known as greenhouse gases, all build up in the atmosphere of the earth. All these gases make it so that it becomes harder for the radiation that the sun shines into the atmosphere to escape. The heat continues to build up and this is what causes the temperatures to increase. I know this seems like the temperatures increase massively but in the last hundred years the average temperature of the Earth has gone up between 0.8 and 1.0 degrees farenheight. Also in the last fifteen years, we have had the ten warmest years in record. Global Warming also helps the Earth and it has been for many years. Without global warming, the Earths temperature would be a lot lower than the 60-degree average. Unfortunately due to there being many more harmful greenhouse gases being placed into the atmosphere, instead of the temperature sta ying at a constant, its rising. What are many of the dangers of the Earths temperature rising? First of all it cause many of the glaciers that are floating in the Arctic and Greenland to melt. This in turn causes the sea levels to rise around the world. In the last hundred years alone the seas around the planet have risen anywhere from four to ten inches. I know it does not sound like a massive change but being able to raise all the seas in the world a whole ten inches is a huge problem. Sea levels also continue to rise is because the hotter temperature cause the ocean water to expand. An example of the sea level causing problems could happen on a little Native Island in the middle of an Ocean. On these islands usually where native tribes live, if the sea level rises three fourths of a meter then half of the island will sink. This could happen in many different islands around the world and if the water keeps on rising as it is, then farming land near the seashores will be flooded and the crops will be destroyed and many farmers will be left without much to live off of. The melting of the glaciers are also causing some problems in the Himalayas. Many of the tips of the mountains in that area. Massive flooding and rivers that are well above their normal levels are threatening the crops and homes in the area. Many of the locals that live in the area and many of the scientists that are surveying the area are saying that the glaciers are melting at a phenomenal rate. Another danger that comes with the changing of the climate is that the increased heat causes more evaporation to occur in the hotter climates. This causes there to be more precipitation in many other climates that are not used to handling massive rainfalls. The increased rainfall also leads to speeding up the process of the sea levels rising. Health is also something that becomes threatened because of global warming. Heat becomes a huge factor in the health of humans, especially the elderly. Incidents such as heat stroke head exhaustion and diseases increase drastically. The heat makes it possible for mosquitoes and other insects to transmit diseases. This is something that happened in New York during this summer. A very rare disease called St. Louis Emphyitis (spelling?) that would spread in puddles of water that mosquitoes would drink out of due to the heat. These mosquitoes would then bite humans and infect them with this disease. I dont recall how many people, if any died due to this, but it did cause a bit of a panic in the New

Money Laundering and Abusive Tax Havens Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Money Laundering and Abusive Tax Havens - Essay Example (Ethiopia: Council Passes Bill on Dirty Money. USA Today. [internet] Available at: http://content. usatoday.com /topics /topic/People/Notorious/Al+Capone. [Accessed June 25, 2009].) Whatever receipts coming from the washing venture, even if at a loss or lesser than what he invested, would therefore come out clean. So, the dirty money was delivered somewhere, washed and made clean or made to appear clean. Here is a kidnapper from Indonesia, for instance. Let us give him the name K. He kidnaps a vacationing wealthy Chinese in Macau. K gets one million dollars as ransom money in exchange of the victim's freedom. One cannot always carry one million dollars in bills or currency notes without inconvenience or difficulty. So, K deposits 300,000 dollars to the account of his Mistress No. 1, also 300,000 dollars to the account of his Mistress No.2, and another 300,000 dollars to the account of his Mistress No. 3. For the remaining 100,000 dollars, he keeps part of it in a minor bank account he has and part in his pocket. Bingo. The 900,000 dollars are safely placed in the custody of his paramours' bank accounts. In case he needs money, he simply calls any of the ladies and gets an on-line cash credit to his petty account. A corrupt official from Korea who receives kickback money or illegal commissions from a Japanese construction firm will not keep the bucks in Korea. What will he do He can buy corporate bonds from companies based in the United States. After a while, the scandal arising from his plunder will subside. He now wants to have his cake and eat it. How will he realize his evil earnings That is very simple and is not a problem. He will sell those U.S.-based debt certificates fast at a discount. What is the point The illegitimate loot sums up to one million dollars, all used to buy the bonds. The subsequent sale of the debentures generates 900,000 dollars. He losses 100,000 dollars in the process, does he Yes, but what He evades the long hand of the law. He runs around the law. He mocks the law. Tax havens, on the other hand, are generally bona fide. These schemes to avoid taxes are sometimes encouraged to push investments or to drive forward a good cause or crusade. A current event item is the tax incentive for the use of alternative energy. (Home Energy Efficiency Improvement Tax Credit. Consumer Energy Tax Incentives. U.S. Department of Energy. [internet]. Available: http://www.energy.gov/taxbreaks.htm. [Accessed June 25, 2009]) Thus, if you invest in a solar energy panel, for example, you can get a tax credit of maybe 30% or the equivalent of 300 dollars. This means that if you purchase that kind of gadget for 1,000 dollars, it is just like you only bought it for 700 dollars. Once you file the required return for the April 15 annual income tax deadline and your supposed tax liability is 500 dollars, you only pay 200 dollars. You are entitled to deduct the 300 dollars as tax credit. You are allowed to do that because you help the government about its environment concerns