Groupon’s IPO and a Tip for Grouping Your Ideas Clearly

The longer a sentence gets, the more difficult it is to group its ideas clearly. But even average-length sentences can be unnecessarily tangled, as in this example:

As investors clamored for shares, Groupon, at the end of the day, priced its initial public offering at $20, above the expected range of $16 to $18.

That sentence is 27 words long — a good length in business prose. But the sentence is hard to follow because several ideas are mixed together:

  • Investors clamored for shares at the end of the day
  • Groupon priced its initial public offering at $20
  • That price was above the expected range of $16 to $18

Separating those three ideas makes it easier to weld them back together with new, user-friendly transitions:

As investors clamored for shares at the end of the day, Groupon priced its initial public offering at $20 — above the expected range of $16 to $18.

Try dividing up a sentence into a bulleted list whenever you feel your ideas getting tangled.

In itself, an occasional list provides a very easy format for busy readers to skim. Lists also offer a great technique to help you group your ideas in standard sentences that are easy to follow.

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Write It Well’s book Essential Grammar includes one chapter on sentence structure and two more on punctuation. We’ve made all the book’s exercises available as a free download here to accompany the e-book, which is now available on Amazon.com!

Do you have an important document but not enough time to clarify your thoughts and double-check your punctuation and grammar? Just use Write It Well’s editing services to make sure your readers follow your ideas and respect your voice.

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