How To Recognize My Common Problems

Some of my biggest problems in writing essays is writing with complicated sentences and not providing support for my paper. These tend to go hand in hand because without the support or factual evidence proving my ideas, I make my sentences big and grandiose in order to convince my reader of my points. It is rather easy to recognize these problems and correct them for future writing.

One huge indicator of writing a complicated unnecessary sentence is when I or any other writers search the thesaurus for a better word, or a bigger word that can cover numerous other words. Here the writer is attempting to sound smarter by using a bigger and more diverse vocabulary. However, in searching for this “magic” word, we will often lose the meaning in the sentence, or distort it slightly so it is no longer the same. Thesauruses provide us synonyms of words that are close to our original word, but are not the same. If we did not know the word to begin with, and it is not in our vocabulary, than we probably should not use it. Only use words that we know the meaning of and apply in our daily speech. If we are unsure of a word, or think that it will make the paper sound better, do not use it.

Often time’s complicated sentences are correlated with fallacious arguments. We often argue in circles and attempt to sound persuasive with little or no support. Here we often repeat the same or similar sentences in numerous different ways because we have little or nothing else to say or prove. To ensure simpler sentences, we must write to prove a point and ensure the reader understands it. Reading essays is not supposed to be a psychological trick question seeing if the reader can figure out what the writer intended. Rather, it is supposed to convey an important point or message that a reader can easily understand without having to reread a sentence, paragraph, or the whole paper over numerous times. Be clear and concise.

Finally a huge indicator of complicated sentences will be a huge essay with little or no support. Without support, the writer will attempt to be persuasive enough to convince you that his or her point is correct without providing the factual evidence. This persuasion will often result in misdirection or complications to confuse the reader into believing the point is correct. However, we cannot believe a person’s statements or assessments without factual proof. With more evidence, our points will be clearer and more concise so that we will not need to “impress” the reader.

There are no definite ways of defining complicated sentences or pointing them out. However, these are some of the most common causes of overly complicated sentences. In writing essays we must all remember to be clear and get to the point. Why argue around what we wish to state? Do not put our main point or statement at the end. Put it at the beginning and go from there proving why we believe our statement is correct. This should help eliminate the need for confusing sentences.

-Kevin-