Comedy writer Dave Barry once cautioned his readers: “You can only be young once, but you can always be immature.”
In addition to being true and amusing, this quote illustrates one of Barry’s most important writing tricks. When crafting sentences – especially humorous ones – pay particular attention to the last words. They can make the difference between a yawn and a guffaw.
Imagine if Barry had cautioned his readers in a slightly different way: “You can always be immature, but you can be young only once.” For most readers, this would be more confusing than amusing. By moving the punch-word – “immature” – to the middle, the sentence dissolves in vagueness.
Writers have a name for the information we put at or near the end of a sentence: “endweight.” We use end-weighting to bring extra attention to particular words or ideas, or to help create a chain of logic that our readers can easily follow.
Here’s another example from Barry’s humor writing: “Skiing combines outdoor fun with knocking down trees with your face.” Up until the last two words, that is not in the least bit humorous. It is “your face” that makes it pop.
End-weighting can help with the flow of an argument as well. When you are making a complex argument in writing, it is often best to begin each sentence with something simple (or something we already know). Then finish the sentence with words that advance your point-of-view.
So you might say: “I have watched the new UK football team in practice, and the team shows great promise. That promise is the result of three years of stellar recruiting. If the recruiting continues like this, we may actually win an SEC title.”
We began each of the three previous sentences with simple, accepted facts, or positions that we had already established. Then, we used the second half of each sentence to advance the argument that UK football is making a comeback.
In the end, the art of writing is only partly about selecting precise words. It’s also about putting those words in a precise order.
Neil Chethik, aka the Grammar Gourmet, is executive director of the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning (www.carnegiecenterlex.org) and author of “FatherLoss” and “VoiceMale.” The Carnegie Center offers writing classes and seminars for businesses and individuals. Contact Chethik at neil@carnegiecenterlex. org or 859-254-4175.