Refining Complex Grammar Skills

Writing that uses only short, simple sentences can feel choppy. Writing that strings too many ideas together in one sentence can feel confusing. Refining your grammar means finding the balance: combining related ideas with the right connecting words, and breaking apart overloaded sentences so each idea is easy to follow.

Look at these two versions of the same idea.

Choppy: "The storm hit the coast. The power went out. Families lost heat for two days."

Refined: "When the storm hit the coast, the power went out, leaving families without heat for two days."

The refined version uses a subordinating conjunction ("when") and a participial phrase ("leaving families without heat") to connect the ideas smoothly instead of listing them one after another.

Every clause has a subject and a verb, but not every clause can stand on its own. An independent clause expresses a complete thought. A dependent clause starts with a word like "because," "although," "while," or "since" and cannot stand alone, even though it has a subject and a verb.

Before you can fix a sentence, you need to be able to label its parts. Look at the sentence below and notice how it splits into two pieces.

If you remove "because they had won the final match" and it still makes sense on its own, you have found the independent clause. The piece that can't stand alone is the dependent clause. When you analyze your own writing this way, you can quickly tell whether a sentence is actually complete or just looks complete.

A verbal is a verb form that acts like another part of speech. Learning to recognize and use verbals lets you combine ideas without adding extra, clunky clauses.

A gerund ends in "-ing" and works as a noun, as in "Reading every night improved her vocabulary." A participle also often ends in "-ing" (or "-ed"), but it works as an adjective, as in "The exhausted hikers rested by the trail." An infinitive is "to" plus a verb, and it can act as a noun, adjective, or adverb, as in "She stopped to catch her breath."

Watch how a verbal can replace a wordy clause:

Wordy: "The dog was barking at the mail carrier, and it ran across the yard."

Precise: "Barking at the mail carrier, the dog ran across the yard."

The participial phrase "Barking at the mail carrier" packs the same information into fewer words and creates a smoother sentence.

Once you can identify clauses and verbals, you can start catching the errors that make writing confusing.

Sentence fragments happen when a dependent clause or a phrase is punctuated as if it were a complete sentence. "Because the bridge was closed." is a fragment on its own; it needs an independent clause attached, such as "Because the bridge was closed, we took the long route home."

Run-on sentences happen when two independent clauses are joined with no punctuation or connecting word. "The rain stopped the sun came out" needs a conjunction, a semicolon, or a period: "The rain stopped, and the sun came out."

Misplaced and dangling modifiers confuse readers because the describing word or phrase is in the wrong spot, or has nothing logical to describe. "Running down the hill, the wind blew hard" suggests the wind was running. A clearer version is "Running down the hill, I felt the wind blow hard."

When you edit your own paragraphs, read each sentence and ask three questions: Does it have a complete independent clause? Is every connecting word doing its job? Does every modifier clearly point to the word it describes?

Independent Clause: A group of words with a subject and a verb that expresses a complete thought and can stand alone.

Dependent Clause: A group of words with a subject and a verb that cannot stand alone and relies on an independent clause.

Verbal: A word formed from a verb that functions as a noun, adjective, or adverb instead of as the main action.

Gerund: A verb form ending in "-ing" that acts as a noun, such as "swimming" in "Swimming relaxes me."

Participle: A verb form acting as an adjective, such as "broken" in "the broken window."

Infinitive: The word "to" plus a verb, used as a noun, adjective, or adverb, such as "to learn" in "I want to learn."

Sentence Fragment: An incomplete sentence that is missing an independent clause or a key part of one.

Run-On Sentence: Two or more independent clauses joined without correct punctuation or a connecting word.

Misplaced Modifier: A descriptive word or phrase placed where it confuses or changes the intended meaning of a sentence.

Related lessons

• Understanding Advanced Grammar Concepts