Sentence Diagramming: Making Sense of Sentences

摘要

Sentence diagramming is an important tool for technical communicators to use in analyzing their own writing and editing. Sentence diagramming is also a neutral basis from which to discuss and evaluate technical documentation with colleagues and with other coworkers, such as subject-matter experts, who are not professional communicators. Through visual examples, this paper illustrates how to diagram three types of sentences (simple, compound, and complex), how sentence diagramming shows an objective view of three common syntactical errors (misplaced modifier, lack of parallel structure, and dangling modifier), and how the revised sentences make sense as sentences and as diagrams.