Transcription
Welcome back, friend! I'm glad you're here—and you're just in time to dive into our second discussion on the topic of flow.
Today, we're talking about how to build more fluid sentences. A while back, we talked about how everybody wants their writing to flow but very few people actually know what that means, so we got to work fixing that problem. In that first video, we talked about how the basic goal of writing with flow is to reduce the amount of friction that your readers experience as they read. If your writing flows well, your readers won't encounter much resistance. Instead, they'll be able to glide along, absorbing your ideas and processing your sentences with ease. We then spent the rest of the time talking about ways that you can make your writing flow from one idea to the next. Our goal was to help readers grasp our meaning easily, and we called that semantic flow.
Today, though, we'll be talking about a different kind of flow—syntactic flow. This kind of flow doesn't have as much to do with your ideas as it does with the way that your sentences are put together. You see, the way you build sentences can have a big effect on how fluidly your readers can move through your writing. Think of it this way: here's a glass we want to fill with water. We could use a nice, functional measuring cup to do the job, bu—oh no—this one doesn't seem quite up to the task! What a great big mess! This one is built a little different: it has a spout. And that structural difference makes it so that the water can flow easily and cleanly from the measuring cup to our glass. Bottoms up! So, if sentences are anything like measuring cups (and I'm telling you that they are), then the way that we structure our sentences can make all the difference when it comes to how our writing flows. Now you don't have to build sentences with spouts in them, but you're doing your readers a big favor if you do. And, of course, if you're interested in flow and you're eager to learn more, consider subscribing so that you always have the latest funneled cleanly to your screen of choice. And, of course, if you've already done that, thank you—you're a real hero. And now the flow must go on!
To begin with, transitions can do a lot to improve the flow of your writing. These words, or sometimes phrases, do the job of telling your readers how your sentences fit in with the sentences around them. For example, here's a paragraph without any transitions: Many people cook their eggs in butter. Not everyone cooks eggs in butter. Some cook their eggs in oil. Some even cook their eggs in a mixture of oil and butter. There are many good ways to cook eggs. Now, this is an okay paragraph, but it doesn't do anything to help readers see how the sentences are related to each other: it just drops one sentence after another. You can figure out how the sentences are related, but that's exactly the issue—you would have to figure it out.
If we add some transitions, though, you can see more easily how the sentences relate to one another: To start, many people cook their eggs in butter. However, not everyone cooks eggs in butter. In fact, some cook their eggs in oil. Furthermore, some even cook their eggs in a mixture of oil and butter. All told, there are many good ways to cook eggs. This paragraph isn't a masterpiece, but it does flow in a way that the original just didn't. Instead of dropping one sentence after another, this one includes some words that tell you what to do with each sentence as it comes along. The first one is the beginning; the second one provides an alternative; the third gives a factual example; and the fourth extends the discussion to a new end. At each step, the transition word tells you what the sentence is there to accomplish. These little transitions don't take up much space, but they do the big job of telling readers what to do with each sentence that they read. Instead of leaving the reader to figure it out on their own, these transitions help the reader to know how to process the information that each sentence delivers, and that's the real goal of flow—to make it easier for our readers to process the things that we write. Of course, there are loads of transitions, and you can find whole lists of them out there. The main point today, though, is that it doesn't take a lot to give your readers some clues about how your sentences fit together.
A while ago, we talked about the two main types of clauses—independent and dependent. Independent clauses make complete sense by themselves, and dependent clauses, while they do have a subject and verb, don't make complete sense alone: they depend on another clause to be complete. When you have a sentence with an independent and a dependent clause, you have a sentence where subordination is happening—and subordination is one important way to improve the structural flow of your sentences. I think of it sort of like this: if paragraphs are staircases made up of sentences, then independent clauses are like individual steps. You have to take a full step to move from one to the next. Dependent clauses, though, aren't full steps—they're more like little ramps that go between the steps. And I don't know about you, but going up and down ramps is a much smoother ride than going up and down stairs. So taking advantage of dependent clauses can help you to smooth out the rough edges of your writing.
And, if that's a little too abstract for you, here's a paragraph made of independent clauses: There are many different types of pans for cooking eggs. You have many options. You should pick a pan; decide on your preferred cooking method. You may plan to fry a couple of eggs every so often. A small nonstick skillet may be enough. However, you may be more interested in poaching your eggs, and you may opt for a small saucepan. Many people have strong opinions about their eggs. It’s important to find the method and pan that will work best for you. Again, not an especially offensive paragraph, but each independent clause is a full step. Your reader has to process one clause, then process the next, and then figure out how they go together. Each sentence is a complete restart for the reader, but it doesn't have to be that way.
Here's the same paragraph, but, now instead of being a series of independent clauses, the sentences have been rearranged into pairs of independent and dependent clauses: Because there are many different types of pans for cooking eggs, you have many options. You should pick a pan after you decide on your preferred cooking method. If you plan to fry a couple eggs every so often, a small nonstick skillet may be enough. However, you may opt for a small saucepan if you’re more interested in poaching your eggs. Although many people have strong opinions about their eggs, it’s important to find the method and pan that will work best for you. In some ways, dependent clauses work like transitions, but they have the added benefit of working just as well at the beginning or end of a sentence. So, depending on the effect that you want to achieve, you could use an introductory dependent clause to ease your reader towards the main claim of a sentence—or you could use a dependent clause at the end to let your reader down softly rather than with a thud.
As we've discussed before, modifiers are pretty versatile bits of language. They can go in lots of different places and do lots of different things—and one of the things that they're best at is improving the flow of sentences. You see, where independent clauses are self-contained blocks of information, modifiers are like little additions that give your reader more information without interrupting the flow or forcing them to reset their processing with a whole new clause. And, with that in mind, here's a step-by-step independent clause-heavy paragraph: Tim had cracked the eggs. He had gathered his ingredients. He had grabbed his whisk. Tim put the ingredients in the bowl. He whisked. He mixed all the ingredients together. He put the scrambled eggs into the pan. He stirred and folded the eggs until they were ready.
And here's a revision, transforming many of these independent clauses into modifiers to create a smoother reading experience: Having cracked the eggs, gathered the ingredients, and grabbed the whisk, Tim put the ingredients in a bowl and whisked, mixing all the ingredients together before putting the scrambled eggs into the pan, where he stirred and folded them until they were ready. When you run into writing that has a lot of short sentences that ask readers to stop and start and stop and start over and over and over again, try to find ways to turn some of those short sentences into modifiers. Often, that involves turning the verb into a participle ending in -ing or -ed, or sometimes, it means pulling out the noun phrase of one sentence and using it as a modifier for the subject or object of a different sentence. Modifiers are so flexible and varied that the options are pretty limitless. The main point here, though, is that there are ways to keep your sentences flowing without smashing your reader into another period and capital letter. You see, the ends of sentences are spots for readers to stop and to reflect on what they've just read and to prepare for what lies ahead. It may happen pretty quickly, but there is a reason that some people call periods full stops—and it's pretty hard to flow when you're stopped. By transforming some of your clauses into modifiers, though, you can keep your readers going and reduce the number of stopping points along the way.
Now, in the examples that we've looked at so far, you may have noticed that some of the flowier versions still ended up sounding a little inelegant. Sure, they were better than the original versions, but there was something a little odd about them still, and that leads us to an important point: while flow is our goal and while transitions, subordination, and modifiers can help us to improve the flow of our writing, it's also possible to overdo it. You know, there's a reason that people like crackers on their soup or nuts on their sundaes—that textural contrast is pretty appealing. So it is definitely possible to work your sentences into such an effortless flow that you just end up putting your readers to sleep. The examples that we showed today exaggerated that point to illustrate the effects that these flow techniques have, but that doesn't mean that every sentence must or even should do one of those things. That is, you don't have to eliminate every short, blocky independent clause. Instead, you could think of them like croutons or peanuts—as much as flow is a good thing, variety and contrast are even better things. And, further, it would be a good idea to keep all three of these flowy techniques in your repertoire: any one of them can make your writing flow more, but over-reliance on a single technique will make your writing flow more like a drowsy stream than like an exciting river.
To wrap (up notice that transition), every time a sentence ends and a new one begins, readers lose a little bit of momentum as they move from one sentence to the next. It only happens for a fraction of a second, but, if it happens too much, it can become distracting and unpleasant. So, in order to help your readers get from start to finish with less stopping and starting, you can write sentences that flow more seamlessly into each other. Whether you do it with transitions, subordination, modification, or, hopefully, a combination of all three, you set your readers up for a smoother, more fluid reading experience. And, with that, it looks like our flow boat is drifting into port. So thanks for sharing your time with me—it's always a treat to chat. If you heard something helpful, give us a like and flex your new flowy muscles by writing something beautiful and riparian in the comments. Also, don't forget to check out the website for more, and, until next time, just go with the flow! Well, I mean, I guess unless you're headed towards a waterfall or something, then, of course, you probably shouldn't—but, anyway, I'll see you later!