Make Your Writing Flow | Sentences: Transitions, Subordination, and Modification
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- Опубліковано 2 лип 2024
- People always say they want their writing to flow, but what does "flow" even mean? In this video, we talk about three ways that you can make your sentences flow in your writing, making it easier for your readers to move from one sentence to the next.
Supplemental material can be found at: www.andrewbashford.com/post/m...
0:00 Introduction
2:02 Transitions
4:06 Subordination
6:53 Modification
9:04 Caution: Variety and Contrast
10:22 Conclusion
Where were YOU forty years ago when I needed you?! I taught myself the basics in my local library after leaving school empty handed (due to severe ADHD and Dyscalculia diagnosed 2 years ago in my mid fifties) but you are on another, stratospheric, level! Thank the Holy Algorithm for sending you to me! 🙏☺️ Feeling my world expanding and getting richer is really something this late in life.
I'm not sure where I was--but I'm glad you're finding some helpful world-expansion now! It's always good when the algorithm comes through
@@WritingwithAndrew I wish you would of been around 50 years ago.
Recently, I forgot how to structure my sentences because of the lack in essay activities handed to us. But now I'm trying to get back on track and dust off my writing skills, then I stumbled upon your video! This definitely freshened my mind, huge thank you to you, sir Andrew.
That makes my day--happy to hear it helped you get back in the groove! Thanks for the kind words!
Wow, I'm in awe how you taught us all this so far.
Thank you so much, Andrew!
Best regards from Ukraine!
Keep up the great work, as I'd really like to see more videos regarding the complicated thing: flow.
Thanks for the kind words--I'm glad it was helpful!
And with that , "it looks like our flow boat is drifting into port"... 🙌
Quickly becoming one of my favorite writing videos on YT. Good stuff!
Thanks for the kind words--I'm glad to hear you're enjoying it!
It's interesting. A lot of style manuals tell you not to use these transitions, but that's how I write. I've been struggling to rid myself of transitions, but all I end up with is choppy writing. So seeing someone advocate for them is nice.
I know what you mean. Blame it on Hemingway's style becoming the most lauded and predominant, as opposed to, say, that of Faulkner's.
This is something I've recognized I need to work on recently. Glad to see have found this.
I subscribed, like, a minute and a half into the video 💘
Can’t wait to learn more from you!! You’re so perceptive - AND good at explaining it. That combination is too rare ☺️
Thanks so much! I appreciate it!
Amazing video Andrew. This is the best video I’ve ever seen about sentence flows!
That's very kind--I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you so much for this -- the bit on samey nature of clause after clause was what I had failed to properly diagnose in my fiction, I had been using modifiers to broaden my sentences which just made them longer but still samey without knowing what I was doing. And "... the reason why periods are called FULL STOPS ... it's hard to flow when you're stopped" So helpful!
This video is incredibly dense with applicable principles.
Thanks a lot--I'm glad it helped!
What an amazing channel just popped into my feed today in Australia 🇦🇺 at the most opportune moment given I’ve got to hand an assignment in next week. You should have a greater following, hopefully the algorithm will push you onwards and upwards.
Thanks so much--I'm really pleased to hear the videos have helped! Good luck on that assignment!
You have solved a huge obstacle that has been preventing me from regularly writing! Whenever I write , I am disappointed with the disjointed sentences and paragraphs, and as a result avoided writing altogether. But now, I know how to use transition, subordination, and modification I can start practicing to craft on a daily basis. Thanks man.
In return I have subscribed to your channel and liked the video.
Thanks--I'm glad it helped!
This video led me to what I need, which is sentence variety structures on my writings
Thank you!
Happy to hear it--glad it helped!
As someone trying their hand at poetry and lyrcism recently and overall has always held an appreciation for the written word, Im delighted to have stumbled onto your channel.
Its probably those reasons UA-cam finally threw your channel at me. First one from you was "Poems are riddles" and I loved the poem about the wheelbarrow. The meaning seemed obvious now, but I bet kid me wouldve been very wooshed.
Edit: I really appreciate your out of the box analogies for these concepts! Ill have to rewatch this a few times to let the vocabulary and overall lesson cement itself.
Thanks!
What an eye opening video. It showed me what i need to work on.
I also need to work on conversational flow
Thanks! Conversation is another beast entirely--if you figure that one out, share your secrets with me lol!
Your channel is so informative. Thank you so much!
You're welcome--I'm always happy to hear it's helpful! Thanks for watching!
THANKS, THAT WAS BEAUTIFULLY EXPLAINED
You're very welcome--thank you!
THIS IS SO HELPFUL!!! Thank you so much!!
Sure thing!
I'm happy to have stumbled onto your channel, as your videos have been a great blessing. Moreover, I've seen my writing improve significantly, having put into practice each lesson I've learnt. That said, I look forward to what you have in store; your channel has proven to be an invaluable resource.
That means a lot--thanks!
@@WritingwithAndrew Cheers 🥂
This is incredible, thank you.
You're very welcome!
Thank you, Great writing advice !
You're welcome!
Thank you alot! I'm in 12th grade, and only recently found out that I didn't really understand how to write. Our school never actually gave the rules of writing, and how certain sentences actually work.
Hey, you bet! Glad it helped
Namastey Brother!
I have recently become a fan of your teaching method. This method kept me focused, because you never strayed from the topic. If I'd have skipped it, I would not be learning 'how to make writing flow'. All told, this flow is something which you can see in my sentences. After reading my comment, what do you think "Have I learnt the flow?"
Yes, let the syntax flow through you! Nice work (and thanks for the kind words)!
You are too good, sir. I don't understand why your video and channel have not enough views or subscriptions.
Thank you very much! I guess I have to start somewhere--it just means we have to spread the word!
Nice lesson. Food analogies are the best analogies
very lucid and elegant method are used to teach the writing flow.
Thanks!
Thank you 🎉
An amazing video. Thanks a lot
You bet--thanks!
Thank you for the video. I took notes.
Hey, cool--I hope they help! Thanks for watching!
Thank you 🙏, I loved everything about your your video 😊
Thanks so much--glad to hear it!
Great content. Thanks. I noticed Burke on your shelf. I was introduced to his writings in Harold Bloom's work, but nobody I know is familiar with Burke's many wonderful books. Do you have a list of the other titles on your shelf?
Hey thanks! I don't have any kind of formal list anywhere (maybe I could talk about that in greater detail in a video if it would be interesting). The top shelf is mostly poetry and books on writing style, and the second shelf has rhetorical theory (Aristotle, Burke, Booth, Perelman, etc.) and teaching stuff
I really love the examples at 05:58 about starting the sentences with "Because, If, Although" etc. but in my native language (Turkish) it is incorrect to start a sentence with those words since they are conjunctions, they are there to connect the sentences; meaning they have to be between at least two sentences.
I also hate how in Turkish, it is also incorrect to use a comma before and after conjunctions. (The reason they give you is any conjunction you use already treats the sentence like a comma is there, you stop for .5 secs, if you would put a comma before or after a conjunction, it would make it like the sentence is over blah blah blah)
You probably won't believe me but I once cried because of this genius (!) rule. A sentence sounds exactly how I want if I put a comma after an "and" for example, but Turkish doesn't allow it since it apparently already counts the conjunctions as a semi-stop. Good thing there is no such rule in English.
That's really interesting--sorry to hear about your punctuation woes, though!
nicely explained!
Thanks!
Great set of videos on flow Andrew. Can you recommend any books to read that show writing that flows well? Books that will help put what you have said about flow into context?
Thanks! I could recommend writers that I have admired at different times over the years--George Orwell, Wayne Booth, Richard Lanham, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Ted Kooser--but one of the cool things about flow is that you'll probably notice the effect before you notice the techniques. So if you find yourself enjoying a book's style, I'd bet you could find many (if not all) of these flow techniques being used
Nice clear flowy explanation
Thanks!
You are an excellent teacher 😂😂😂😂
6:45 Thanks, you helped explain what made my writing so confusing lately. I've tried getting comfortable with all sorts of punctuation (semicolons, colons, emdashes, and brackets), that my writing hit a lot of dependant clauses or sentence fragments that reduced and/or outright removed the focus of my writing (while heavily stylizing the flow with this form of writing in narration). Much appreciated for pointing this out; I sometimes struggle with organization (semantic flow) since I tend to plop ideas within other sentences (I guess I don't think about it as much) as it's intuitive, or that I write much faster than I used to; I'll backtrack to basic sentence constructions like before- basic periods and commas-since they work better and simpler for a reader. You can see the changes in this paragraph alone, and in some cases, are merely habitual (almost like write-to-speech).
Glad it helped! Most readers will consider clarity the primary virtue of writing, and it is important but not all there is. No harm in backtracking to practice controlling a sentence--just don't stay there :)
@@WritingwithAndrew Well said, and even when I find these normal constructions to be longer and more “sticky” than it needs to be, it does at least start with the clarity in mind. Sticky sentences tend to overflood details of a sentence or paragraph, while negating the basic principle of reader's understanding. What's important boils down to: clarity, conciseness, voice, flow, and finally transition. There might be other pointers I missed, but, every paragraph fundamentally considers those keys in that order to quote-unquote, “good writing”. Tending to backtracking, however, might not last forever...
@@gamewriteeye769 Yeah, cool thoughts--I really like thinking of sentence parts as sticky...that's going to give me something to ponder for a while :)
@@WritingwithAndrew **How To Make Sticky Sentences Flow**
True; my writing style since has doubled back to sort of using sticky sentences/glue words (almost like a full circle) and I can honestly say it's refreshing to just go back to my normal style of writing, now enhanced with the power of grammar structure; punctuation and all. I don't think I'll be switching out of this style for another, as it plays to phrases where I like a melodical tone; it feels unrestrained and untempered, and I freakin' love the sound and flow of it.
Why stop, right?
As rigid as we temper our writing to be like everybody else's or follow those magical “rules” of writing, the truth is it comes down to your own level of writing and what you're comfortable with; I know I like my style, as it appeals to what I like to read and write, and I won't have others tell me that isn't right; I write my own rules, and no one can tell you that's how you do it. The best we can hope for is an answer: but the best of dreams we make from our creativity pours out of the way we do things best.
And that, my philoscribophile, is how we learn to mold our own writing into its shape. And the best of times, even at the worst of times, comes out of what we make. Imagination, and...creativity.
@@gamewriteeye769 Well put--all those rules are just fossilized conventions anyway. They're useful for showing you understand the tradition, but they're not actually binding. If it works, it works!
Amazing video
I hope you make more videos like this.
Thanks a lot
♥️♥️♥️
Thank you! I definitely have more videos planned, but also feel free to let me know if there's anything you'd like to see a video about in the future
Thanks for your reply.
Im a Freelance blog post writer.
If its possible for you to then please make a video about these 2 topics
1: how to deliver our idea through writing.
2: How to expend small points into long sentences.
Thanks
@@allaboutknowledge6069 Good suggestions--I'm putting the first one on the schedule. For your second one, check out the video "How to Write a Longer Paper" on this channel: it should help with expanding smaller points
@@WritingwithAndrew Im really glad that you appreciate my sugestion.
Im eagerly waiting for your videos.
Thanks a lot
Sure thing!
Hi Sir, thank you for the amazing explanation. I would recommend if you could give some good reference handbook for academic writing.
Thanks! That's an interesting suggestion: I don't have a lot experience with handbooks, but they're definitely out there. It would probably be worth talking about them, though, so I'll put it on the list
I just found your lectures. You still around making these great videos?
Thanks-you bet I am!
Thank you
You're welcome!
I remember getting in a lot of trouble for starting a sentence with because. No I wasn't doing it every sentence.
Yeah, I’m working on making my sentences flow better; this video helps. And I like the skull comments lol
We love to hear it! Thanks lol
Question: What do you think about words that are very present in academic papers, such as: moreover, however, so on and so forth? I am reading a book about stylish writing and the writer argues that great writers can write great paragraphs without using too big an amount of linking words.
Do you think that great writers can creat great academic papers without these ‘basic’ linking words?
Interesting question. Most style commentators are usually guided by the standards of literary writing (especially fiction), so they make strong statements that don't work in every situation. Those kinds of transitions would probably look odd in a novel, but they can be really useful in academic writing for giving readers a sense of how abstract ideas are related to each other. In literary writing there are other tools (like chronological narration) to help readers find their way, so overt transitions like that may seem a little heavy-handed. It's definitely possible that academic writers could do without them, but academic writers are also doing a very different job that requires different tools (so I'd hesitate to outlaw them in all cases)
Let me tell you what I do:
First, I write down my ideas randomly on a piece of paper without maintaining coherence and flow. Afterwards, I add phrases, clauses, words and sentences which can create flow in my writing. I do all of these things in the second attempt. I am confused how I will manage all these things in a short period of time.
Give me some recommendations to address this issue.
Im a visual learner. just speaking and no examples gives me nothing. You had couple examples good but i need colour codes and important tips printed on my screen for couple seconds and even pictures would help hugely. Ty
I recently enrolled in grad school it’s completely online. I was making the grade,however no one was responding to my discussion responses
I’m thinking this is why
It's not impossible--but don't be too hard on yourself either. From what I've seen, people don't usually respond to discussion posts unless it's specifically required--and then they usually just respond to the first one they see. Grad school is a great opportunity to work on your writing, but your current lack of responses may have more to do with them than with you (especially if you're making the grade). Either way, thanks for watching!
I have always struggled with transitions, my thesis presentation was a nightmare.
To be fair, even the best thesis presentation is probably a nightmare on some level 😅
What is the title of the video you reference in the introduction?
The first video in the series? Check out the Writing Flow playlist if you haven't already, and you'll be able to find it there
@@WritingwithAndrew Thank you, sir!
Small critique, I think the font in the word bubbles is distracting and doesn't add much. The goal is to read the text quickly while also paying attention to your words (also this vid is from 2 years ago and IDK what your format is like now). I think it detracts more than it adds from the product. It's not a killer obvs, this vid has 23k views which is more than anything I've ever gotten, but I think a clearer font might help (although I appreciate you're trying to use text which carries a theme.)
Thanks--I have changed the font since, but it's always a good reminder!
We need to develop our learning process by developing our capacities in life so that we flow with other people's minds and ways of teaching, a visual learning knows how to learn well visually so why not take that knowledge of self to listen in visual ways to become a more imaginative learning as humans learned through storytelling at night around the fire or in the rain of a hurricane...you are my friend an ORAL-AURAL LEARN by the sheer nature of your beloved human nature...so listen and learn through the rhythm of language while realizing your asking a teacher to improve their skills is a sign of Post Modern times in which sacred orders of teacher student are no longer respected as Sacred nor regarded as divine order...hierarchy in teaching is imperative to us students who learn best by flowing in the direction of our teachers' theory and methodology...thisvteachervis the best there is and I want you to know this so you are able to learn in New ways that are innate to your being human...visual learns when we are able to see, oral-aural learns when we are able to listen.. tactile learns when we are able to feelnour soul and listen to the thoughts of our heart...
where is the first part?
Check the "Writing Flow" playlist on the channel--all three videos in the series can be found there
Do I get a cape?
If you have the means to acquire one, Writing with Andrew will do nothing to impede you
Choosing between full stops or semicolons (where it is acceptable, of course) can also improve the flow of the text. I tend not to trust writers who never use semicolons 😂
(Uh oh, don't watch my semicolon video... 😅) But you're right--a semicolon keeps things moving where a full stop brings things to a, well, full stop 😂
Btw, Andrew loves eggs
lol, what gave it away?
@@WritingwithAndrew every sentence is centered around eggs 😅
Why the distracting sounds in the background? Could do without them.
Thanks
You bet!
❤