[Dianna]

I believe that if students were actually taught diagramming, there would be fewer grammatical mistakes in their writing and less confusion about what they were actually trying to convey.

When I am writing something important, I spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to re-write certain sentences to "sound right" to me. It sure would be easier to if I knew how to pinpoint the problem.

[Carolinamom]

From your wide reading, you've most likely developed an 'ear' for the smooth flow of your sentences. Placing modifiers (words or phrases) near the words modified and using transitional words or phrases help to make what you write 'flow'.

Rewriting is necessary to eliminate wordiness. Reducing a sentence to a verbal phrase is one method of eliminating useless wordage and tightening up your writing. Another practice is to use strong active-voiced verbs, which put 'muscle' into your writing. Interesting and variety of vocabulary is also a must in good writing....and simply by reading widely, one absorbs vocabualry...osmotically, IMO...LOL