Final answer:
To make a sentence more effective, avoid passive voice, maintain grammatical consistency, and aim for clarity and brevity. Mixed sentence constructions and redundant language should be edited out to improve readability. Proper editing enhances the writing's relevance to the audience and the text's overall rhetorical effectiveness.
Step-by-step explanation:
An ineffective sentence in writing can be attributed to several factors such as lack of clarity, wordiness, redundancy, inappropriate tone for the audience, weak evidence for the claim, and poor grammatical structure. An essential aspect of editing for more effective sentences is reducing the use of passive voice, which can drain the vitality from a paper making it seem lifeless and overly wordy. Moreover, sentences must maintain consistency in their grammatical structures and adhere to conventional expectations to contribute to rhetorically effective writing.
It is also crucial to avoid mixed sentence constructions, such as 'Just because... doesn't mean', which, although common in speech, should be avoided in writing due to their potential to confuse the reader. Finally, sentences that are repetitive or choppy should be combined for better flow, and superfluous words should be eliminated to convey the core message more succinctly, as in the process of reducing a sentence from 49 to 16 words by cutting out unnecessary language.
Analyzing a text for these common pitfalls can greatly improve clarity and impact, ensuring the writing is appropriate for its intended audience and purpose, thus avoiding the criticism of lacking thought and comprehensibility.