Sentence Fluency

Go With the Flow

Have you ever listened to a band or orchestra play a beautiful piece of music? The group of instruments might include flutes, clarinets, trumpets, violins and saxophones. Each instrument is playing a different set of notes, but when all parts of the group are playing together, it projects a beautiful melody that is pleasing to the ear.

Writing is similar to the music played by that band or orchestra. All of the words, phrases and structure you use should work together to make a beautiful final product that is pleasing to the reader's eye.

What is Sentence Fluency?

Sentence fluency 'refers to the way individual words and phrases sound together within a sentence, and how groups of sentences sound when read one after the other.' In order for a reader to understand the idea you're trying to express in your writing, a sentence must flow smoothly from the first letter to the final period or exclamation mark.

Sentence fluency relies on the writer's ability to use a variety of sentence lengths and structures as well as sentence beginnings woven together to tell a seamless story. Using repetitive sounds, words and phrases to create patterns when read aloud or silently can change an average group of sentences into a really great group of sentences. By using sentences of different lengths, with different beginnings, you create interest and a rhythm in what you're writing.

Excellent sentence fluency can make your writing sound more solid and cohesive, and lets the reader easily understand what you are saying.

Examples of Sentence Fluency

With some basic guidelines to follow for sentence fluency, we can craft beautiful phrases. Remember the following rules:

• Use simple and more complex phrases
• Start each sentence differently
• Use transitions to join ideas

With those rules in mind, let's look at a few examples of sentence fluency:

Example 1:

Elizabeth hadn't eaten breakfast and was ready for a snack by 10 a.m. Hungrily, she wolfed down the sandwich and milk, hoping it would tide her over until lunchtime. She was ready to go outside to play.

This example works well because it follows our rules. It uses a simple sentence, then a more complex one and finishes with a short sentence. Each sentence starts differently using 'Elizabeth,' the adverb 'hungrily,' and the word 'she.' And, we see a transition with the word 'hungrily' in the second sentence.

Now, let's look at a way to write this sentence that uses less fluency. You might write it this way: Elizabeth hadn't eaten breakfast. She wolfed down the sandwich and milk. She was ready to go outside to play.

This example does not work as well because all of the sentences are short and choppy, two of the sentences begin with the same word, and there are no connecting words or phrases to help tie together the thoughts.

Example 2:

The group of kids ran, skipped and hopped from the school bus to the front door. Inside, they took off their coats and hats. They ran to the carpet and sat down, prepared to listen to a story from their teacher.

This example works well because of the varying length of the sentences, different sentence beginnings and connecting words such as 'inside' that help a reader transition from the kids at the front door to when they sat down prepared for the story.

Now, take a look at this sentence and let's see if we need to make it stronger:

Example 3:

Katie enjoyed the snow. She liked to put on her boots and mittens. She thought it was fun to have the day off from school.

Because these are short, choppy sentences that don't seem to flow together smoothly, we can rewrite this to make it better. Also, remember we should start each sentence differently. A revised example might read like this:

Katie put on her boots and mittens. She thought it was fun to have the day off from school, and wanted to spend it enjoying the snow. Snow days are a blast!