ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses ways to write sentences that are clearly structured and grammatically correct by examining the most common pitfalls in sentence construction. Many business writers, both novice and experienced, think that the best writing style is characterised by big words and impressive-sounding sentences. They are unaware that impenetrable prose alienates their readers because they lack the wisdom of George Bernard Shaw, who said he was pleased that everyone knew he was a well-educated man, because that meant he could write simply and not have to impress anyone with a ‘grand’ style. In the sentence, ‘The stockholders were impressed by its dividends this year’, the pronoun ‘its’ should be changed to ‘their’ to agree with its antecedent ‘stockholders’. There is a growing reluctance to use the pronoun ‘me’.
