Success with Syntax: Tips for Young Writers (and their teachers)

We often see the same questions crop up in our writing workshops, so award-winning writer Heather McQuillan has put together a series of tips for young writers and their teachers.

Syntax? That’s just a word for the way we arrange words and phrases to create well-formed sentences. It can feel a little mysterious at first, but once you start to explore sentence structure and understand how it works, your writing becomes clearer, stronger, and way more fun.

Here are some hands-on, helpful tips to help you master the art of sentence-making.

Syntax isn’t about being perfect — lots of writers break the rules for effect — but it is about making your writing clear, expressive, and powerful. Every sentence you write is a chance to explore how language works. When you’re in control of your sentence choices, it becomes less about memorising rules and more about expressing your voice.

I made a lot of changes as I edited this post, and I admit I am a bit nervous that someone's going to criticise a misplaced or missing comma. I do love editors who check my work for me! These three questions have been useful:

Ask These Three Sentence Questions

Whenever you check a sentence, pause and ask:

• Meaning: Does this say what I meant?

• Clarity: Can someone understand it the first time they read it?

• Coherence: Do all the parts of the sentence fit together smoothly?

These questions will help you spot where you need to revise or rewrite.

Tip 1: Start with Your Own Sentences

The best way to learn about sentence structure is by writing your own sentences. When you write about something you care about then you want to make sure it works well.

Try this: Look at an object or picture in front of you and write a sentence using a subject and the predicate ( you might have heard these called “the who” and “the do”) 

The lemur stares at the camera.

(The lemur is the subject. Stares is the predicate.)

You could try writing a sentence for this picture ( I like lemurs!)

Read your sentence out loud. 

You will already have a noun and a verb ( the subject and predicate), but see what other words you have used, and think about the job they are doing in the sentence. Are there any other words that might do the job more effectively? Did you miss out on any words that help the sentence make sense? Did you add in extra words that make it hard to follow? 

Share your sentence with a friend and compare how you each described the same thing. What different choices did you make with your words? How did you structure your sentences in different ways?

Now that you’ve thought about it, are there any changes you’d like to make to your sentence? One of the things I love most about writing is that we have multiple goes at getting it right (It’s not like skydiving!)

Tip 2: Build and Combine Your Sentences

Try this activity: Start with a simple 3-word sentence. This will be a subject and a predicate, and maybe an extra word, such as the or a, to help it make sense.  (the and a are articles which are used before nouns) The lemur sat. Now expand it!

ASK:

• Where? (The lemur sat on the branch)

• When? (The lemur sat on the branch this morning)

• Why? (…to watch the birds)

• How? (…very still and quiet)

Keep building until the sentence starts to feel too long or confusing. Read it out loud to check. That’s your cue to break it into two (or more) clear sentences or rearrange the elements. This is one way writers learn to avoid run-ons and keep their ideas flowing logically.

Tip 3: Play with Sentence Combining

Got too many short, choppy sentences? Combine them! Sentence combining helps you understand how clauses work and gives your writing more rhythm and variety.

Example:

• The sun was shining.

• The lemurs were playing.

• It was a warm afternoon.

Different combinations:

• The lemurs played in the warm afternoon sun. 

• It was a warm afternoon, the sun was shining, and the lemurs were at play.

• Sunlight poured over the warm afternoon as lemurs filled it with the joyous sounds of play.

Which one is the clearest? Which one might you use for a specific effect? Which one just doesn't sound like you?

Did you come up with something different? 

Final Thoughts

When you explore grammar and syntax through your writing — your sentences, your thoughts — it sticks. It helps you grow as a writer and gives you the confidence to experiment with language. So go ahead: write boldly, build your sentences, and don’t be afraid to explore syntax.

(c) Heather McQuillan and Write On School for Young Writers, 2025