Have you ever gone through your work, sentence by sentence, and compared its structure to that of other published works? Probably not. In fact, you might even wonder why you'd do that.
Here’s why. Varying the way you structure your sentences keeps your readers engaged and gives a rhythm to your writing. For example, if every sentence you wrote started with a subject and a verb, it would make for some boring reading.
Are you aware of other options for structuring your sentences? If not, ProWritingAid’s Sentence Structure Report can help you analyze your work and make suggestions on ways to punch it up.
How does the Structure Report work?
Open the file you want to analyze in your desktop app or in the online editor. In the listing of reports at the top, after "Echoes" but before "Sentence," click on "Structure."
The report analyzes your document, showing you how many of your sentences start with a subject, an adverb, a gerund, an infinitive, a subordinate conjunction, a coordinating conjunction, a past participle, and a verb.
It also compares the percentages of each type of sentence start in your work with the percentage found in published works. If your percentages are too low or high, consider changing some of your sentence starts.
What to do with this information
Readers like writing that’s not only engaging and interesting, but that is somewhat predictable. If you structure your work similar to other published works, your readers can more easily lose themselves in your story instead of floundering in boring sentences.
This is not to say that you should make drastic changes to your work based on this report. You alone should decide what suggestions to accept and which to reject. Use the Sentence Structure Report to experiment with different sentence structures to see how they enhance your story or your meaning.
Final thoughts
Click here for more information on using ProWritingAid’s Structure Report. Then give it a whirl. It could be the vehicle that gives your writing that extra little boost that enchants your readers and makes your editor happy.
Have you tried ProWritingAid yet? What are you waiting for? It's the best tool for making sure your copy is strong, clear, and error-free!
