Hints of possible sentence problems often show up at the beginning of a sentence. Here are four tips you’ll use again and again:

1.  Anything that begins with a person, place, or thing is probably a real sentence and should end with a period.

My trip to Hawaii did not begin well.  SENTENCE

If what you’ve written doesn’t begin with a person, place, or thing, it’s probably an extra idea. That’s ok – but remember that it can’t stand alone. It should a) end with a comma and b) be attached to a real sentence.

Although my trip to Hawaii did not begin well,  EXTRA IDEA

Although my trip to Hawaii did not begin well, I had a wonderful time there.  SENTENCE

(Click here to read about Comma Rule 1.)

2.  Remember that it is a thing. Here’s a handy rule of thumb: If it starts with it, it’s a sentence. (This tip can save you from many run-on sentences.)

I pushed on the door, it wouldn’t open.  INCORRECT

I pushed on the door. It wouldn’t open. CORRECT

3.  The beginning of a sentence usually tells you who or what the sentence is about. Use that information to solve problems with subject-verb agreement.

Changes in top management (has, have) caused cancellations and delays.

Focus on the word changes, and you’ll know immediately that the verb should be has. [Use…has]

Changes in top management have caused cancellations and delays.  CORRECT

(Click here to read about Subject-Verb Agreement Rule 4.)

4.  Be especially careful about starting sentences with -ing words. Of course it’s correct to start a sentence with a word ending in –ing: Just remember that you risk writing a sentence fragment or a dangling modifier.

Loving her the way he does.  FRAGMENT

Loving her the way he does, he can’t bear to see her in so much pain. 
CORRECT

Loving her the way he does, the cost of the ring didn’t matter.  DANGLING MODIFIER

Loving her the way he does, he didn’t worry for an instant about cost of the ring. CORRECT

If you’re interested in improving your writing, one practice that will pay off again and again is to check the beginning of each sentence. A highlighter makes it easy. Try it!

Photo © Justin Smith / Wikimedia Commons, CC-By-SA-3.0

Here’s a caption that appeared under a photo in today’s local newspaper:

Naomi Poe, founder of Better Batter Gluten Free Flour in Altoona, Pa., learned that it is important to try to understand how your customers value your product, and to raise prices, she had to convince customers her products offered added value.

I just checked the New York Times, the original source of the story and photo. Their caption was shorter and more readable. Apparently the journalist who writes headlines for our paper forgot a useful writing rule: One idea per sentence.

Let’s take another look at that mouthful of a sentence – or, more precisely, at part of it:

Naomi Poe, founder of Better Batter Gluten Free Flour in Altoona, Pa., learned that it is important to try to understand how your customers value your product, and to raise prices,

That phrase “and to raise prices” doesn’t make sense until you read further – “she had to convince customers her products offered added value.” But by then most readers will be as lost as I was.

Solution? It’s simple. Break the sentence in two:

Naomi Poe, founder of Better Batter Gluten Free Flour in Altoona, Pa., learned that it is important to try to understand how your customers value your product. And to raise prices, she had to convince customers her products offered added value.  BETTER

I’m wrapping up 2010 by offering my best suggestions about becoming a better writer. Here’s today’s advice: Creating is different from editing.

Creating (generating ideas) and editing (sharpening sentences and correcting errors) are very different activities, involving different parts of the brain.  Both are vital – and they have to be approached in different ways.

Where do ideas come from? On a good day, they simply blaze forth onto a piece of paper or a computer screen. You feel inspired. In bygone days  writers would say that a muse had visited them.

Most of us can’t wait around to be inspired, however. The pump must be primed, so to speak. Reading, doing research, journaling, freewriting, webbing, listing, talking to a friend – there are many ways to start the creative juices flowing.

It can be helpful to remember that “create” does not necessarily involve originality. Most great thinkers freely acknowledge that they’re building on ideas and information from others. The writer’s job is to reshape those materials to fit the task at hand.

Editing requires a totally different set of skills: Knowledge of punctuation, spelling, and the other conventions of writing. It also requires a feel for an effective sentence, along with knowing how to write a thesis statement, how to support it, how to organize a paragraph, and similar tasks.

If you were to look at MRIs or brain scans of hundreds of writers at work, you would soon notice that they use different parts of their brains at different times. You might also notice differences in the way the writers’ brains have developed. English courses in schools and colleges tend to emphasize one at the expense of the other.

Some writers – those who spent many hours diagramming sentences and studying traditional grammar – are terrific editors. Others – who attended liberal schools and were encouraged to express themselves freely – are good at creating.

If you want to be a successful writer, you need to be good at both. Or, alternatively, you need to hire a terrific secretary or marry someone who has developed the skills that you’re lacking.

And, at the very least, you need to remind yourself not to get sidetracked into editing too early in the writing process. Have something to say first. Know where your ideas will be taking you. Look for interesting examples that will draw readers into your ideas.

Then – and only then – you can start focusing on gerunds and indefinite pronoun references and all the other grammatical points that educated writers and readers delight in. (I’ve been known to phone writers to congratulate them on getting a subtle usage issue right.)

Creating comes first, editing is second: Sound advice for any writer.