Plan Your Sentences
and Avoid Common Grammar Mistakes

Dyslexia can cause writing to be disorganised and unstructured. Common grammar mistakes include, adding or missing out words, writing sentences that are unnecessarily long, or ordering sentences in an inappropriate way. With a little planning most of these mistakes can be avoided.

Why is sentence planning important?

If you start writing without planning you have to construct your ideas as you go along. This can force you to pause in the middle of sentences to think about what you are going to write. Mistakes will often occur here when you have to switch from writing to thinking and back again.

You are essentially doing two things at once, planning your sentences and writing. As we all know it is easier to do one thing at a time. If you get into the habit of planning every sentence it will not only make your writing easier to read but it will also save you time in the long run.

The easy and effective way to plan out sentences and avoid common grammar mistakes:

When you plan each sentence you don’t have to think about the actual words. All you need to consider is the meaning of the sentence.

Here is an example:

“A bright red car travelling at over a hundred miles an hour is being chased by a number of police cars”.

The easiest way to plan a sentence is to ask yourself, what is the main point? What is the actual meaning or message? The main message in the example sentence is:

The police are chasing a car.

Now you’ve got the main point of the sentence clear in your head. You can quickly change the sentence around in your mind if you want to. Here is a different way of writing the example sentence:

“A group of police vehicles are pursuing a car travelling at a dangerous speed.”

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Let's compare the two sentences:

“A bright red car travelling over a hundred miles an hour is being chased by a number of police cars”.

“A group of police vehicles are pursuing a car travelling at a dangerous speed.”

Almost all the words are different but the two sentences have the same basic meaning:

A car is being chased by the police.

The basic meaning is what you are really communicating to the reader. You can choose to dress it up in whatever words you like.

Therefore you need to start with the main idea or thought when planning a sentence. Once you know the point you are trying to get across you can think about how you want to say it in words.

A lot of people get stuck because they try to think about the words they are going to use before they have established the point they are trying to make. Within this confusion is where mistakes can occur.

Conclusion:

Getting into the habit of planning your sentences is a great way to avoid common grammar mistakes. It will massively help you to take control of your writing. Clearly expressing your ideas will become a quicker and easier process.

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