When we write things down, it's important to keep things nice and clear, so it's easy to read. Sentences help us give an order, ask a question, state a fact, or express an emotion or idea. Words are ...

A dependent clause cannot stand alone, though they often contain both a subject and a verb. Where independent clauses express complete thoughts, dependent clauses do not, and left on their own, ...

The thinking seemed to be that the more fancy words and complex sentence structures they could shoehorn into an essay, the greater their likelihood of getting an A. Much of my job consisted of ...

In English, our sentences usually operate using a similar pattern: subject, verb, then object. The nice part about this type of structure is that it lets your reader easily know who is doing the ...

Writing well isn’t easy. In fact, it’s “hard work,” said William Zinsser, author of On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction. “A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Natalie Wexler is an education writer focusing on literacy. When students can’t understand what they’re reading, it may be because ...

Letters represent sounds. Words are built from letters. A group of words makes a phrase. Add a subject and verb, and you have a clause. If that clause expresses a complete thought, we call it a ...

When you’re writing for work, it can be tempting to rely on industry jargon or big words to puff up your ideas. But overblown language doesn’t make you sound smart, and it can be off-putting to ...