by Jennie Ruby
Yes, yes, I know: you end a sentence with a period or exclamation point or question mark. But what I am interested in is the last word. The last word or phrase in a sentence often receives a little more emphasis or attention than words in the middle of the sentence. The word or phrase you place there rings in the reader's mind and sticks with the reader a little longer. Here are two good choices for those final words.
Yes, yes, I know: you end a sentence with a period or exclamation point or question mark. But what I am interested in is the last word. The last word or phrase in a sentence often receives a little more emphasis or attention than words in the middle of the sentence. The word or phrase you place there rings in the reader's mind and sticks with the reader a little longer. Here are two good choices for those final words.
End the sentence with an adverb. Adverbs can occupy several locations in a sentence. The most common placement is in front of the verb or between an auxiliary verb and the main verb like this:
I have carefully edited this manuscript.
But listen to the boost this adverb receives when it is placed at the end of the sentence:
I have edited this manuscript carefully.
End the sentence with a new topic. You can build from known concepts to the introduction of new concepts:
All of the styles we have worked with so far have been paragraph styles. In the next section, we will use styles to format one word or character at a time. These new styles are called character styles.
Not every sentence has to end with a bang. But when you want to single out a word or concept for a little special attention, try placing it as the last word.
The skier quickly changed directions to avoid the avalanche.
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Join Jennie online February 5, 2010 where she'll be teaching Writing Training Documents and eLearning Scripts.
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About the Author: Jennie Ruby is a veteran IconLogic trainer and author with titles such as "Editing with Word 2003 and Acrobat 7" and "Editing with MS Word 2007" to her credit. Jennie specializes in electronic editing. At the American Psychological Association, she was manager of electronic publishing and manager of technical editing and journal production. Jennie has an M.A. from George Washington University and is a Certified Technical Trainer (Chauncey Group). She is a publishing professional with 20 years of experience in writing, editing and desktop publishing.