Five Sentence Habits to Fix Before Next Year
Under the current syllabus, Language carries twenty of the thirty marks in each writing section — double what covering the content points is worth. And across marked scripts at every Secondary level, most of those Language marks are lost to a handful of repeated sentence habits, not to a lack of vocabulary.
The year ahead will be busy. The weeks before it starts are the right time to fix these five, one at a time.
1. Keep one tense unless time actually moves
The commonest fault in Secondary writing is tense that drifts mid-paragraph: She walked to the gate and sees her friend. Pick the tense when you start, and change it only when the time of the story genuinely changes. One read-through of any finished piece, checking verbs alone, catches most of these.
2. Match every verb to its subject
Everyone want to help and the group of students were late read as careless even when the ideas are good. The trap is distance: when several words sit between subject and verb, the ear loses track. Find the subject, say the pair aloud — everyone wants, the group was — and the error exposes itself.
3. A clause starting with “as” or “when” cannot stand alone
As I reached the door. is not a sentence — it is a beginning waiting for its other half. Clauses opening with as, when, because, although must be joined to a main clause, not sealed off with a full stop. If a “sentence” starts with one of those words, check that something completes it.
4. One idea per sentence
The opposite fault: sentences that run on through three ideas joined by and… and… so… until the grammar buckles somewhere in the middle. A long sentence is not more mature — a controlled one is. When in doubt: one idea, full stop, next idea.
5. Vary the opener, but only after 1–4 are solid
Paragraph after paragraph opening the same way — Then… Then… After that… — flattens otherwise decent writing. But this is the finishing touch, not the foundation. Accuracy first; variety second. A plainly written, accurate script scores better than a decorated, error-filled one.
How to actually fix them
Not all five at once. Take one habit per week: hunt it in your own old scripts, drill it in short bursts, and check for it — and only it — in your next piece of writing. Five weeks, five habits, done before the new year starts.
The Sentence Repair Kit drills exactly this — spot the error, name it, fix it — with a levelled edition for Lower Secondary, N(T), N(A) and O-Level, $22.90 for all four.
