What is a complex sentence?

 
The word ‘complex’ is what usually creates all of the problems. Complex, in
this situation, does not mean complicated, long or impressive. This is a
common misconception and leads to students writing overly long sentences
that seem to go on and on, and to make matters worse they contain
grammatical mistakes.

Here’s an example of such a sentence:

‘In the modern world, global warming is one of the most popular topics,
because it causes many environmental difficulties and there are many
tough challenges that arise from the serious consequences if it is
neglected.’

This is a very typical sentence from an essay that is trying to be overly

complex. This student has tried to put four simple ideas into one paragraph
and the result is an awkward and incoherent sentence.

Always remember that your writing should be clear, the examiner or the
reader should not have to read it twice to make sense of it. The sentence
above has been written without any major grammatical mistakes but it’s
meaning is a bit lost. There’s just too much information that is being
squeezed into one sentence.

A ‘Complex’ sentence does not have to be very complex. Two or more

simple sentences can be put together to form a complex sentence.

Why should you write complex sentences? If you only write in Simple
sentences then this will make your essay appear very boring.
Let’s take a look at the example again. This time we shall rewrite it using
only simple sentences.

Global warming is one of the most popular topics. It causes many

environmental difficulties. There are many tough challenges linked to global
warming. Global warming has very serious consequences. These
consequences should not be neglected.

This is not desirable, notice when you read how the sentences keep
breaking. When you write a complex sentence it allows your thoughts and
ideas to be linked together.

This will make it more easy to read and understand the essay and most
importantly also show the examiner that you are able to write complex
statements.

Here have a look at this:

One of the most common environmental issues is global warming

which causes many serious environmental problems. There are tough
challenges associated with this issue and its effects will have very
serious consequences if neglected.

Notice here that we have taken the 5 sentences and rephrased them, we
have grouped together our ideas into two complex sentences. Unlike in the
first example simply splitting the sentences into two separate sentences it
is much more easier to read and understand.
How do you construct a 
complex sentence? 
Like with most things a complex sentence needs to start with a simple idea.

For instance let’s start with a very simple idea that we’d usually write while
attempting an essay that deals with the environment.

Simple Idea:

Planting trees is good for the environment.

The Next Step is to ask yourself a few questions

How?
Why?
Where?
When?

So we can ask the following questions:

How is planting trees good for the environment?

Why is planting tress good for the environment?

Where does planting trees help the environment?

When does planting tress help the environment?

Here we can easily understand that Where and When really does not make sense, but if we
were to answer the questions How or When we would come up with this:

How is planting trees good for the environment?

Planting trees is good for the environment because they trap carbon
dioxide from the atmosphere in the process of photosynthesis.

This sentence could also be written as:

Because trees trap carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the process of
photosynthesis​,​ planting them ​(trees)​ is good for the environment.

Remember if you rephrase the sentence like this you must remember to
add a comma after the dependant clause.

Because trees trap carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the process of

,​
photosynthesis​ planting them ​(trees)​ is good for the environment.

It’s easy to remember whenever you start a sentence with words like
Because / While / If / Until / When​ you will have to remember to put a
comma.

Remember this structure:

Because / While / If / Until / When ___​dependant clause​____ ​ ,

______________​ .

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