Appendix 3: Academic Sentences – Simple to Complex
When writing academic or scientific research papers, it is important to use a combination of simple, compound, and complex sentences to express ideas and arguments clearly, precisely, and logically. As a general rule:
- Do not write too many simple sentences. This makes it difficult for the reader to follow the logic of the argument.
- Do not write overly long, complex sentences that express too many ideas. This makes the writer’s arguments confusing and unclear to the reader.
|
Basic rules |
|
|
A complete sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a period, question mark or exclamation mark. |
Good academic writing conveys ideas about a topic in a clear and logical way. |
|
A complete sentence typically follows the order: subject / verb / object. |
Good academic writing / conveys / ideas about a topic in a clear and logical way. |
|
The verb must agree with the subject. That is, a singular subject needs a singular verb and a plural subject needs a plural verb. |
A good academic essay conveys ideas about a topic in a clear and logical way. Research papers offer a unique perspective on a topic using a wide variety of expert sources. |
|
Types of sentences |
|
|
A simple sentence has one independent clause and no dependent clause. |
The Japanese government raised the consumption tax to 10% on October 1, 2019. This research investigates societal perspectives on physician-assisted suicide. |
|
A compound sentence has multiple independent clauses, and no dependent clause, which are joined by a conjunction, a comma, or semicolon. |
Education is highly valued in most societies, and a quality education now seems increasingly dependent on the amount of money spent on this investment. In most countries, males and females receive an equal education, yet women are still paid less than men. |
|
A complex sentence has one independent and at least one dependent clause. |
The market for traditional newspapers remains positive although there has been a significant decrease in circulation due to competition from digital outlets and changing reading demographics (Merskin, 2019). Before conducting the experiment, the equipment had to be formally inspected to ensure safety. Immediately following the interview, the audio recordings were transcribed and analyzed. |
Example of sentence combination:
| simple sentence: | Recent developments in Information Technology have led to changes in the workplace. |
| compound | This new technology helps companies to be more productive, and it also enables new methods of communication and collaboration |
| complex sentence: | As digital resources become more commonplace in the workplace, geographical borders, spatial distances, and time differences no longer remain barriers to building a global workforce. |
