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6+1 Traits: Sentence Fluency — I Got Rhythm

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(Updated in 2020)

Photo by Hannah Olinger on Unsplash

I Got Rhythm I Got Music

We talk about being fluent in a foreign language, but it’s almost foreign to talk about being fluent in our own.

Wow! That’s a fluent sentence. It’s got rhythm and cadence. It’s well-built and interesting. It stands well on its own and it almost dares you to read it out loud.

If I were to guess why so many people tell me I’m a great writer, I would guess that sentence fluency has a something to do with what they are thinking about.

Sentence fluency is the romance of how words come together to pass on meaning. To me it’s the seduction of writing. It’s what writers mean when they use the word compose.

As a reader, I want the words to carry me and do what great music does — take me along with them — slow down when I need to listen hard and go fast, fast, fast, when the writer is telling something that’s exciting and fun.

As with all of the traits of effective writing, writers have ways to make writing dance to the tune that you want.

Flow Rhythm and Cadence

Sentence fluency is all about flow, rhythm and cadence. Start with the well-built sentences that you learned in school. (Okay we’ll go to some grammar next.) Those well-built sentences are the basic lines of the music of the language. Here are 6 +1 ways to help you compose.

    • Write sentences that underscore your meaning. The example I used started and ended with the idea of fluency.
    • Vary the length of your sentences. This is the one that is easiest and that folks miss most. A short sentence after two or three long ones is a relief to a reader. Two or three short ones in a row can be fun. Break things up.
    • Fragments and dialogue can add power and rhythm.

You’re old enough to eat ice cream for breakfast now. You can decide when it’s okay to use what’s not a complete sentence. Making everything a sentence slows things down. The rule to follow is whether readers can follow you. End of story. Kick that self-editor out of your head.

  • Start sentences in different ways to add variety and energy. Try to avoid There is and It is as much as you can. Start with the first noun after them and rewrite the sentence from there.
  • Use transitions and segues that are appropriate and compelling. Show me how things connect and build on each other. Also use thoughts that make me curious about where you’re going.
  • Write with a cadence that you can hear when you read your work aloud. Listen for the sound of your words and their pacing as well as their meaning. Do words roll and bounce where they should? Do they slow and tiptoe where the topic is serious? Do they speed up and tumble when the topic is not?

PLUS ONE: Despite what they say, sometimes the passive voice is the right way to say something. If you take out the passive voice totally most documents sound stilted, as if they were meant for children learning to read. You know your readers. Your eyes and your ears are the best judge of what works.

Effective writing is fluent and fun. It carries me effortlessly to the end of the piece so much so that I don’t even realize it. It’s like dancing with a partner who knows how to lead, I relax and enjoy the participation. I start reading, and before I know it I’m done.

Fluent writers are the ones that you want to read more of. They are addictive. You can hear their voice even when you’re not reading their words. I just showed you how you can get to be one of them. It’s not magic. It takes time and practice though.

Imagine what that fluent writing can do for your brand.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related Articles
9 + 1 Things Every Reader Wants from a Writer
9 + 1 The Sequel – When Big Words Go Bad
6+1: Writing Voice the Sound of Your Brand
See the Writing Power for Everyone Series on the Successful Series Page.

How to Code Links for Sidebars and Posts

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How to Code Links

New Blogger Logo

One of the first things I encountered as a new blogger that seemed to perplex me was writing the code to build my own links. Once you know how, it seems easy.

I remember too well a major directory I wanted to be in that required you take a button and link it back to their blog. They didn’t provide the code only .jpgs of buttons. I wrote support for help and a guy with geeky attitude basically said, Figure it out for yourself.

Even if you already know how to code links, having this post that lays it out plainly is a handy thing because you’re bound to have a new blogger friend ask you for help on this in the next few weeks.

To keep a blog healthy and sleek, build links the old-fashioned way. It’s really not hard once someone shows you how.Turn the page for explicit examples. [Read more…]

Net Neutrality 6-29-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’ve added these links to the Net Neutrality Page today.

Net Neutrality Matters by Scott Russell

Imagine a world where Internet performance is controlled by the company who owns the cables and where speed is sold to the highest bidder. Imagine a world where some Web sites load faster than others, where some sites aren’t even visible and where search engines pay a tax to make sure their services perform at an acceptable speed. That’s the world US Telecommunications companies (telcos) such as AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner are trying to create. . . .

To the lay person, it may seem like a laughable proposition. As Cory Doctorow (FreePress) put it, “It’s a dumb idea to put the plumbers who laid a pipe in charge of who gets to use it.” And yet the US congress is swaying towards the view of the telcos, so what’s going on?

Blogtopia “Under Grave and Immediate Threat”

Imagine trying to cope with today’s world without blogs.

On second thought, it’s too painful.

Yet, it may happen sooner rather than later:

Blogs have gained a growing cultural and political impact in the United States and worldwide. In the United States, they’ve been credited with playing a key role in the resignation of a U.S. Senate Majority Leader and the public repudiation of a longtime TV news anchor. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of the English language deemed “blog” its word of the year in 2004. The Technorati website boasts that it keeps track of some 28 million blogs worldwide.

Undeniably, blogs and their collective identity known as the “blogosphere” have become an extraordinary phenomenon. And no matter what topics they may discuss or what political leanings they may espouse, they are all under grave and immediate threat.

The Internet’s Oedipal Drama

Fundamental changes have already taken place in the Internet’s traffic load. In the good old days when the Internet was a private club for elite Universities and defense contractors, traffic was light even for the primitive pipes of the day. When congestion collapse appeared it was viable, just barely, to manage it with an end-to-end system that relied on good behavior on the part of the community, because there was a community. The overloaded Internet of the mid 80’s got new life from exponential backoff and slow start in TCP, because the most aggressive consumer of bandwidth was ftp, the files it transferred were short, and users were patient. They didn’t have spam, viruses, worms, or phishing either.

Now that the Internet has to contend with a billion users and multi-gigabyte file transfers with BitTorrent, the honor box model no longer works at all. When BitTorrent is slowed down by backoff, it simply propagates more paths, creating more and more congestion. In another year, the Internet is going to be just as unstable as it was in 1985.

This being the case, the carriers have to implement traffic limits inside the network, building on the mechanisms established as far back as the 1980s with RED and its progeny. This is the only way to control BitTorrent. There is no community and we’re not patient people.

And while they’re doing that, it makes perfect economic and technical sense to implement voice- and video-oriented QoS. Even Berners-Lee acknowledges this, he’s just on the neutrality bandwagon because he’s exercised about third-party billing for web content, a very obscure concern. So whether the phone company manages its links or not, whether they offer third-party billing for QoS or not, and whether the phone company competes with Akamai by offering content caching or not, the Internet will either change or collapse.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Link Leak Virus in Greek Cooking

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The Link Virus Epidemic

Link Leak Virus is a special strain of the indie virus with blogtipping mutations that occur in threes. On Open Comments Night the virus was released when a cooking contest was held on Thassos Island, Greece. Here are some cool links that were shared:

The Cooking Contest that Went Viral

Ben came early and in his typical fun-loving way. The donkey was cooking up some viral marketing techno baubles. Then he started the night with a contest. Finish this sentence. “I cook like . . .” Ben said. Next thing you know it’s a contest.

Ben even said that there would be prizes, and that I would be happy to donate them. As the night went the prizes became Ben’s idea again. A free complete set of the DVDs of Fawlty Towers, starring John Cleese. He left for a while to post-it on his blog. I went over to add it to Reddit — that could be how the virus spread so quickly.

Starbucker said I cook like I golf – I’m not very good at either, and probably never will be.

Joe said I cook like a Clam in a Casino.

Chris said I cook like . . . Basil the Donkey.

Things were sort of slow in the contest mode, so I decided to raise the bar a bit.

I said “Okay then, now I have to get serious about this cooking contest.

I cook like a cavewoman who hasn’t yet discovered fire and just found out that her caveman is having an affair with a wild turkey that isn’t really a turkey because cave people didn’t live anywhere near wild turkeys . . . wild turkeys hadn’t evolved yet. So in fact, he has been having his fun with a bird-like wild boar and now she not only has to set the idiot straight, but also has to find him food, before she kicks his butt out of the cave. And that hurts her very deeply. So she gives up eating . . . ”

Ben threatened to take that one viral with a YouTube video.

Starbucker came back with I cook like I exercise; very infrequently and when I do, I can’t do it very long or very well because of the fact that I do it infrequently, and because of the infrequency the net results of the exercise is very unsatisfactory, and because its unsatisfactory I only do it infrequently.

Chris, not to be outdone, offered
I cook like an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. Good amount of beefsteak, lots of spice, and top it all off with a just bit of cheese.

All Trisha said was that My cooking and singing are kind of on the same level – I think it would be cruel to do to the plants.

Cat chimed in with I cook like a I dance (both of which I love). So at times it may be slow and easy. Others, fast, fast, fast.

HART I cook like my wife cleans .. when it comes to Stir Fry and HART’s Famous Chili Recipe.

Christine said she liked to listen to music while cooking, but never said how she cooked. I never said I was listening to her music through the whole comments night conversation. Gosh, she really is worth listening to.

The code-writing donkey and moose cooking up trouble with the swill sipping pig last I heard.

This Week’s Comment Quiz

One question, one answer for one link. Post the answer on your blog and leave a link to the post with the answer in the comments below. I’ll link your post when I announce you as winner. If we do it this way, I can take three winners.

The question is:

What did Kean want to add to his blog?

Until next week, I hope you’ll be here!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles
The Mic in ON in Tuscany!
Link Leak Virus Page

6+1 Traits: Word Choice — A Writing & Business Power Tool

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Word Choice Reveals Things About Us

Power Writing Series Logo

Hugh Prather says, We cannot talk without talking about ourselves. Word choice is where our bias shows.

Difficult, arrogant, clever, brilliant, resistant, creative, out-of-the box, genius, spoiled brat, misunderstood, having a bad day, playing with you, smartass, ambitious, valuable, disruptive.

I heard all of these words said by different people to describe the same exact behavior by a single individual.

Each person chose a different word. The word for them described the behavior, but even more it described their mindset, the filter through which they see the world.

Words reveal the mindset of a company culture too.

Does your company choose nice words to talk about inanimate objects and violent ones to talk about people? Does it seed catalogues and grow the business, but target customers and kill competition?

Word choice is a powerful thing. It communicates our unconscious thinking. At first we think it’s just a habit, but imagine for a second. What if we said “seed and grow customers”? How would that change the way we think and what we do?

What if Google called us customers? Would Blogspot bloggers have more service? What if Technorati called us partners?

Word choice is a power tool — both in writing and in business. [Read more…]

Net Neutrality 6-28-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’ve added these links to the Net Neutrality Page today.

The pretense of knowledge by Patrick Ross

We are only beginning to understand on how subtle a communication system the functioning of an advanced industrial society is based — a communications system which we call the market and which turns out to be a more efficient mechanism for digesting dispersed information than any that man has deliberately designed.

When F.A. Hayek spoke these words more than thirty years ago in accepting the Nobel Prize for Economics, he was referring to the market as a communications system, a reflection of the increasing role of information as a driver of the economy. But these words also speak to the global communications system we call the Internet or cyberspace. While the individual elements of the Internet are designed by man, its growth and evolution has been almost organic, not unlike the development of the market Hayek described. Hayek devoted his career to championing markets over government planning, and his 1974 speech in Stockholm was no exception. His words ring true today as we hear of plans to impose limitations on this modern communications system, this market if you will, by the government in the form of network neutrality regulations.

Net Neutrality: The Mainstream’s still unconscious

The newspaper of record in our nation’s capital, The Washington Post, correctly observes that the rhetoric around net neutrality “has concealed more than it has illuminated.” However the reporter, Jeffrey Birnbaum, parrots elements of the carrier’s arguments in his column, “No Neutral Ground in This Internet Battle.” He fails to provide both sides of the argument in full, suggesting repeatedly that the carriers’ are the aggreived parties.

Let’s begin with his definition of net neutrality:

Net neutrality, which is shorthand for network neutrality, is one of two possible answers to the following legislative question: Should cable and telephone companies be allowed to charge add-on fees to others for access to their networks.

Under a net-neutral system, the answer would be “no.” If net neutrality were to lose, the answer would be “yes.”

A very different definition of net neutrality than mine: . . .

State governments push for Net neutrality laws

As a U.S. Senate panel prepares for a vote on Net neutrality legislation this week, state attorneys general in New York and California are joining Internet companies in saying that network operators must not be permitted to prioritize certain broadband content and services.

In a letter sent Friday to the leaders of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat, urged the adoption of a proposal called the Internet Freedom Preservation Act. This is the first time that state officials have entered the Net neutrality debate.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE