Connect-The-Sentences: Conjunctions

Especially if you're new to English, or any language for that matter. You would probably favour shorter sentences, just so you don't risk making unnecessary grammatical errors. While that makes for a good start, one should always look to improve on that, after having mastered the basics of sentence structuring -- subject-verb-object for English.

Your ability to use conjunctions across a range of situations could prove to be a powerful tool in making your writing sound more fluid and less "mechanical".

In case you don't know what conjunctions are, hopefully the Wikipedia link below would provide you with a general idea(don't worry if you don't understand everything, a basic understanding of what conjunctions are would suffice):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conjunction_%28grammar%29

Now, with our knowledge of how grammatical conjunctions work, let us take a look at how we could put them into use:

Without conjunctions
I went to the zoo. It was a hot day. I saw a bear. I bought an ice-cream.

With conjunctions 
With it being a hot day, I bought an ice-cream while I was at the zoo, after having seen a bear.

 *Conjunctions were underlined.

Okay, I might have overdone it in the second example, but you get the picture.:)

With experience, you will learn to judge, depending on the style you're writing in, and the message you'd like to convey, whether or not writing such long sentences would benefit your circumstance.

Even though the second example used more words, it managed to combine four whole sentences into one. That in itself, reduces your need of stating the subject repeatedly, hence making things flow better, while reducing redundancies in your writing (i.e. repeatedly telling readers things they already knew). There's a fine line between reminding and nagging.:D

Using the list of conjunctions provided by Wikipedia, or any other grammar sites or books, try to apply them in your writing, bit by bit. It'll get easier with practice. Try to avoid starting sentences with "I", even while introducing yourself in writing. Also try cutting down the usage of "the", "these", "that", etc..Having consecutive sentences start with"I"s and "the"s makes the reader feel like he/she would have to "start afresh" after every full-stop, making a piece of writing feel less like
a story, and more like a list of bullet-point statements.

Hope all of that helped! Leave a comment if you have any questions and I'll try to answer them as best I can. Drop me a comment too, if you have anything to add, or if you believe I have provided inaccurate information. Let me know -- we're all still learning after all.:)

P.S. Let me know if you'd like a summary of the "tools" I mentioned in this post, just so you wouldn't have to look through the entire entry just to find those few key points.:) Have fun!

P.P.S. Sorry Twinkle, but it doesn't look like I was able to cover everything in one post, so subsequent posts from me will still be aimed at helping you.:)

Experience English!

Despite it being probably the most used language across countries, English isn't the easiest language to master -- or pick up for that matter. Studies have actually shown English to be one of the hardest languages to learn in the world! It's no wonder so many non-native English users prefer learning just the bare minimum of the language -- just so they'd be able to communicate either at work, or in a foreign country dominated by English speakers.

With that in mind, the Experience English Group was formed.

Within our group, we have both native and non-native English users, each differing in proficiency with the language with the other. We aren't English teachers or linguists or anything...we'd just like share to our experiences and thoughts about the language in hopes of broadening the perspectives of those currently learning the language.

We hope you would find inspiration in learning English from our thoughts and experiences and in it, find further meaning in learning the language.:)

We'd like you to Experience English!

That's it for now...we may expand our scope of things to cover in the future though, so stay tuned!:)

Written by
Ken on behalf of the Experience English Group