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Use parentheses, dashes, and hyphens in your writing to help with style and voice -- but use them sparingly.
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In order to write accurately, it is important for writers to be aware of commonly confused words.
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Choosing the proper words leaves a positive impression on your readers and is important for your credibility at work.
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Connotations of words may be positive, neutral, or negative.
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Slang, clichés, and overly general words should be avoided in academic writing.
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Strong sentence focus reduces wordiness and creates clearer and more concise sentences.
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Coordination joins sentences with related and equal ideas whereas subordination joins sentences with related but unequal ideas.
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Sentences can be coordinated using either a coordinating conjunction and a comma or a conjunctive adverb and a semicolon.
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Subordinate sentences are characterized by the use of a subordinate conjunction.
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Misplaced and dangling modifiers make sentences difficult to understand and, thus, distract the reader.
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Sentence variety reduces repetition in a piece of writing and adds emphasis to important points in the text.
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Sentence variety can be introduced to the beginning of sentences by starting a sentence with an adverb, starting a sentence with a prepositional phrase, or by inverting the subject and verb.
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Combine ideas, using modifiers, relative clauses, or appositives, to achieve sentence variety.