How to improve understanding of long sentences in prose?

Question

What are some efficient, methodical, productive ways to improve the skill and speed of interpreting, parsing, and reading long prosaic sentences? I refer not only to legalese or legal language, but also any complx sentence written in modern English prose. For instance, are there basics, fundaments, or prerequisites about sentences that I should self-learn?Thus far on ELL, I question anew every long sentence that confuses me, but want to transcend this approach 'by chance', which feels like a wastefully haphazard, torturous crawl of piecemeal creeps that hobble too narrowly to reach, even the rungs towards, the apex of sentential comprehension sought.

Answer 1

Hi,

I was amused by your very creative, descriptive closing sentence, but even for me, a practiced teacher, I had to read it aloud to hear the intricacies of thought.

Because we do not always process meaning silently inside our brains, active, voiced reading helps an individual hear the meaning and context clues. Understanding the use of punctuation, differences between colons, semi-colons, commas..., also lets us better understand an author's intentions when he writes.

The more reading one does in a certain genre, the more it becomes natural to the reader because the brain is a muscle that must be honed, sharpened, molded into fruition.

I hope this helps.

Laurie G.

Answer 2

Generally, the advice is: You should write the way you speak. The consequence of that advice is: If you want to improve your writing, improve your speech. After reading the paragraph you wrote to ask your questions, I would want to hear you speak. Any further advice I would give to you about your writing would follow after I had heard, analyzed and considered the way you speak.

Answer 3

Long sentences present a working memory and attention problem—especially when you are reading in a foreign language. It is easy to lose the thread of thought by the time you get to the end of the sentence. This is especially true if you have to think about the meaning of individual words in addition to the overall meaning and structure of the sentence.

Here are a few ideas of how to address this problem:

1. Break up the task (“chunking”). All working memory problems can be alleviated to some extent by breaking up single tasks (such as reading a long sentence) into several smaller tasks. So try to develop the habit of identifying and focusing on the meaning of particular phrases first. Each phrase is a component of the sentence. It is easier to think of how three phrases fit together than it is to think about how 20 words fit together. Use punctuation and familiar sentence structures to quickly identify words that can be grouped into phrases.
2. Increase your domain (content) knowledge. If you know a particular subject well, you can anticipate the sort of things the writer is likely to be saying. For example, since I have read a lot of legal opinions, I can unconsciously anticipate the “moves” judges are likely to make in an opinion, and I know what to expect when I start reading. On the other hand, since I know nothing about the sport of cricket, an article about cricket is hard for me to follow.
3. Increase your vocabulary. The more relevant vocabulary you know, the less your mind has to pause to decipher unknown words.
4. Get motivated and make it fun. Working memory and attention depend heavily on motivation. To slog through difficult reading, you need to be motivated to remember and understand the reading as you go. You have to feel the task is important. It’s best if you both (a) think the reading is important and (b) enjoy the process of reading.

— Ryan