UNDERSTANDING

ELEGANCE

BALANCE & SYMMETRY

Writing with elegance means exercising

control over each aspect of our prose. We
can control and balance our sentences to
lend greater impact to specific words or
phrases.

EXAMPLE:
A. The year was 1960 and the time was
midnight, and the rain ran down by the hotels
and into the gutters.
B. The year was 1960 and the rain ran down by
the hotels and into the gutters. The time was
midnight.

Balance and Coordination

Balanced sentences guide readers carefully

from one clause to the next without rushing
them. The words and phrases of balanced
sentences
complement
each
other
in
arrangement and sound, making a single point
with appreciable style. You can also use
grammar to coordinatethe parts of your
sentences.

Original:
I likeblackberries, cherries, peaches, pears, and
apricotsmore thanapples.
Revision:
I likeapplesless thanblackberries, cherries,
peaches, pears, and apricots.
Explanation:
We can emphasize the main point clearly if we place
the shorter comparative before the longer one.

COORDINATING CLAUSES

A coordinated sentence doesn't leap from one clause to

the next. Instead, it interweaves one clause with another
clause.
We can coordinate clauses with correlative conjunctions
such as "both and," "either or," and "not only but
also."

Original:
Eating lots of chocolate helps when drafting an essay and
when revising it.
Revision:
Eating lots of chocolate helpsnot onlywhen drafting an
essay,but alsowhen revising it.
Explanation: The grammatical construction "not only but also" balances the two compared clauses.

Original:
The ideasthatteachers teach and students study what
they've been taught are integral to our educational
system.
Revision:
Integral to our educational system are the
ideasthatteachers teach andthatstudents study.
Explanation:
Both versions of this sentence use a coordinator to combine two parallel elements; the
second version does this more effectively than the first. The first version presents two
elements ("teachers teach" and "students study") in the same clause (introduced by
"that"). The second presents these same two elements in separate clauses (each
introduced by "that").