"Sentence Combining Techniques"

Business writing in the US is considerably less formal now and still is in many other cultures. The move toward simplification and directness has been fueled in part by increased globalization and the need to communicate effectively across international borders. Writers sometimes err on the side of formal vocabulary and long, complex sentences with the goal of increasing their credibility. Doing so can have the opposite effect, however, making the writer come across as untrustworthy or intentionally obscure in meaning. At the same time, some variety of sentence structure and word choices keeps readers engaged and attentive. This course will help non-native speakers compose documents that achieve a balance of simple, straightforward sentence structures as well as sentence variety to maximally engage readers and convey meaning.

At the conclusion of this workshop, participants should be able to:

• Understand and compose “kernel” (“nuclear”) sentences
• Understand and compose compound and complex sentences
• Understand the utility of appositive phrases
• Understand how emphasis is affected by the ordering of information within a sentence
• Understand the functions of active and passive voice and use them appropriately