sentence structure

Meaning

This term refers to how words, phrases, and clauses are grouped and ordered to form a complete thought. Understanding sentence structure helps writers vary their sentences (simple, compound, complex) to make their writing more engaging and academically rigorous.

Examples

• Using a variety of sentence structures makes your academic essay much more interesting to read.

  Using a variety of sentence structures makes your academic essay much more interesting to read.

• Her English is good, but she still struggles with complex sentence structure.

  Her English is good, but she still struggles with complex sentence structure.

• The professor suggested revising the paragraph to improve the overall sentence structure.

  The professor suggested revising the paragraph to improve the overall sentence structure.

• A run-on sentence is a common error that ruins your sentence structure.

  A run-on sentence is a common error that ruins your sentence structure.

• To master academic writing, you must understand how basic sentence structure works.

  To master academic writing, you must understand how basic sentence structure works.

Common Mistakes

• ✗ Although she studied hard, but she failed the exam.

  ✓ Although she studied hard, she failed the exam.

  Do not use both 'although' and 'but' in the same sentence structure as it creates a redundant double conjunction.

• ✗ The book is interesting, it has many pictures.

  ✓ The book is interesting, and it has many pictures.

  Joining two independent clauses with just a comma creates a comma splice, which is a flaw in sentence structure.

Related Expressions

Practice

• Varying your ___ prevents your writing from sounding repetitive.

  💡 The way clauses and phrases are organized.

  Show answer

  sentence structure

• The editor highlighted several errors in my ___.

  💡 How the sentences are built.

  Show answer

  sentence structure