Sentences are the building blocks of paragraphs, novels, and academic papers. Building a strong sentence is the start of an “A” paper. Keep the reader’s interest using subordination and coordination. Take a look at the following two examples.

Sentences can be simple.  They convey information to the reader. Readability is important to effectively convey this information. Simple sentences won’t help a sleeping reader.

Sentences can be simple, but they don’t have to be that way to perform their function.  Though readability is important to effectively convey information, more complex sentences can show how ideas are related and provide more interest to the reader.

Make your sentence sparkle

Which one of those paragraphs would you prefer to read? (I’m guessing the second.) Is the second paragraph really any harder to understand than the first? (I’m guessing you’ll say no.)  The second paragraph uses what we crazy English types call coordination and subordination, the two main methods of joining ideas.  Before we get into all of that, let’s take a trip down memory lane to my last post, where we discussed fragments, which are dependent clauses while complete sentences are independent clauses. This will all become relevant soon.

Coordination

Coordination is the joining of two independent clauses, so two complete sentences.   It is coordination because they are working together. Neither has any more weight than the other.  Let’s use those last two sentences to showcase different methods of coordination.

Semicolon use

It is coordination because they are working together; neither has any more weight than the other.

Coordinating conjunction use (FANBOYS – for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)

It is coordination because they are working together, so neither has any more weight than the other.

Conjunctive adverb use (however, therefore, consequently, etc.)

It is coordination because they are working together; therefore, neither has any more weight than the other.

Subordination

Subordination is the joining of at least one independent clause with at least one dependent clause.  It is subordination because one clause (the independent clause) carries more weight than the other.  The dependent clause typically begins with a subordinating conjunction.  Unfortunately, there is no nice mnemonic device to remember them, unlike the FANBOYS, but it is often easiest to think of these as expressing condition.  For example, IF this, because this, when, while, during, after, etc.

We’ll use a sentence from earlier as our example.  In “It is subordination because one clause carries more weight than the other,” “It is subordination” is the independent clause while the rest is the dependent clause.  There are two ways the sentence can be structured, with the independent clause first or the dependent clause first.

It is subordination because one clause carries more weight than the other.

Because one clause carries more weight than the other, it is subordination.

We use subordination if there is one part of the sentence we wish to emphasize.

If there is one part of the sentence we wish to emphasize, we use subordination.

(Note the comma only appears when the dependent clause comes first.)

Perhaps most important to note about all of these methods is to not rely on any one of them too much.  Varying your sentence structure helps to create a more interesting read. Intrigued? Have questions? Check out resources available to help students learn more from research guides to free tutoring!