Clear Sentences Checklist
Here's a checklist of questions you can ask yourself to make your writing easier for your reader to understand.
Do all of the words in the sentence serve a purpose?
As we saw in the example sentence, one of the reasons it was confusing is there was additional information that didn't serve the intent of the sentence. When you're trying to fill space in a paper, suddenly adjectives, adverbs, and unnecessary asides often start popping up. Worse, many students, in the course of trying to reach minimum length requirements for a paper, start writing sentences with no substance at all. Let's look at an example:
In the course of the novels we are given multiple chances over and over to become suspicious of Snape's character, most importantly the multiple times that he harasses Harry and his friends for seemingly no reason at all even though they hadn't done anything to him.
The sentence, an analysis of A-Popular-Book-Series-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named, is pumped full of redundancies and ambiguous phrases that take away from the clarity of the sentence. First, we have 'multiple chances' and 'over and over.' As the writer, maybe what I think I'm saying is that Snape gives multiple reasons to doubt him on several separate occasions. Or maybe what I mean is that he does certain things enough times - i.e. 'over and over' - that there are multiple reasons to doubt him. It's not clear, so it has to go. Let's get rid of 'over and over.'
Next, we have 'most importantly the multiple times.' We've already used 'multiple' in the sentence once, so let's replace that with a synonym like 'many.' Also, what does 'most importantly' tell us? It seems to refer back to the 'multiple reasons,' but what is most important? If what the writer really means is to point out specific instances, he must be specific. Let's replace 'most importantly' with 'including.'
Next, let's look at the last part of the sentence, 'seemingly no reason at all even though they hadn't done anything wrong to him.' This is classic fluff, as 'seemingly no reason at all' and 'even though they hadn't done anything wrong to him' express the same sentiment. Choose one - whichever you think is most effective. But we'll clip the last part entirely and remove 'at all' since there's no difference between 'no reason' and 'no reason at all'; that last part also features 'seemingly,' a word choice that makes the sentiment weaker, not stronger. Are you still with me?
Finally, to backtrack to a matter of style, ask yourself: what does 'In the course of the novels' mean? What course are we talking about? Let's remove 'in the course of' entirely and let 'the novels' speak for themselves and not make it an introductory clause but put it in the thick of the action. After our patented Sentence Weight Loss Plan™, here's the lean, mean sentence we're left with:
We are given multiple chances in the novels to become suspicious of Snape's character, including the many times he harasses Harry and his friends for no reason.
Have I made any common mistakes?
Finally, check to make sure you haven't made any obvious errors. Are all of your commas, colons, and semicolons in the right place? Is anything misspelled? Do your subjects and verbs all agree with each other (singular to singular and plural to plural)? It's important to edit and proofread your sentences because little mistakes make your sentences confusing and distract your reader from the point you're trying to make. While your reader is staring at that misplaced comma, he's completely ignoring the substance of your sentence. There goes all your hard work.
Listen to the Rhythm
Sentences have rhythms. They can be long and short, verbose, or simple. And sometimes they can go on and on, twisting and turning down roads and alleyways, rising, falling, tumbling over themselves, and gliding to a gentle finish - unless you don't want that.
Read your sentences out loud - listen to them. If you find yourself getting lost, it's time to edit them. Then, take those sentences and start making their rhythms play against one another - a practice that's more boringly called 'varying sentence structure.' How they all fit together is what eventually makes up your unique style and voice.