Building blocks: syntax, structure and vocabulary

Forming passages of text (poems, blog posts like this one or anything else) is done word by word, like laying the foundations for a brick wall! Because of this, you’ll need to be choosing the strongest words to get your point across, picking a logical structure that the reader can follow, and making sure your writing makes sense.

In this blog post, we’ll be covering the main ways to craft a strong text – by being mindful of your word choice, arrangement and structure. Depending on the tone your work needs, you’ll need to tailor it differently so it can hit its target.

Syntax

Arranging words into a specific order is a good way of having control over their meaning and intent – which may strike you as common sense, but you really do have to think twice sometimes! The syntax of linguistics refers specifically to the arrangement of words and phrases in a text – things like word order, correct grammar and placement: meaning your work is consistent.

Depending on how you arrange your lovely bouquet of words, you can get a different meaning from a sentence. For example, you may want to be more nuanced or rely on subtext so will want to use more flowery language, or you could choose to follow a whole different meaning within your work.

Here are some basic syntax rules to be aware of (especially if you choose to subvert them) – there are quite a few out there:

• Adjectives and adverbs come before the objects, people or places they’re describing – if there are multiple, they should follow the proper order.
• A sentence should include one main idea – if there is more than one, it should really be split into separate sentences
• The sentence’s subject should come first – verbs and subjects come afterwards, in that order!

Structure

Sentence structure refers to the way words and phrases are organised to create meaningful sentences. Crafting a sentence involves the proper arrangement of the subject, verb, and object, along with any extras – like nouns or punctuation. There are various types of sentence structure, including simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences. 

Simple Sentence – this type of sentence contains one independent clause, for example: 

She cycles every day.

Compound Sentence – this type of sentence contains 2 (or more) independent clauses, for example:

She cycles every day, and she visits the horses.

Complex Sentence – this type of sentence contains an independent clause, as well as additional subordinate clauses, for example:

She cycles every day to try and stay healthy.

Compound-Complex Sentence – this type of sentence contains 2 or more independent clauses, as well as 1 or more subordinate clauses, for example: She cycles every day to try and stay healthy, and she visits the horses to try and relax.

Again, there are some rules to be aware of, which can be bent for experimental writing:

• Capitalise the first letter of the starting word in the sentence
• End a sentence with the correct punctuation mark – whether this is a full stop or an exclamation mark
• As per the subject-verb agreement, if the subject is singular or plural, the verb must be singular or plural to make the sentence’s structure consistent.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary is the different word choices within language – and there are a heck of a lot of these! There are many ways to expand your vocabulary, and many reasons why alternative word choices can strengthen your writing. It covers a massive spectrum of language, and there are cultural differences in the words and phrases different speakers use!

When someone is first learning English, vocabulary can come from daily practise and reading widely – and the same goes for adding new words to your collection. Depending on what kind of text you’re writing, you’ll want to tailor your vocabulary – by using puns, or academic-sounding words, or rhyming ones!

Bring your hard hats next time!

So that was a foray into the building blocks of linguistics – syntax, structure and vocabulary. There are loads of intricacies and rules to be aware of, so take it slowly and you should be perfectly fine!