50 Sentence Rewriting Topics for Academic Writing

Use these prompts as revision drills, not as essay titles. Each item names a sentence-level problem—dummy subjects, buried verbs, fake precision, a dangling modifier—that shows up in every faculty. Paste in a sentence from your draft, apply the move, and keep the meaning.

48 topics organized by theme, with difficulty levels and suggested sources.

Cut wordiness and dummy subjects

Recovering a real noun and verb from it is, there are, and padding.

Delete it is important to note that and keep the claim

Argue that the leftover clause is the sentence you should have written.

Beginner · How-to — Sources: your draft, a concision checklist

Rewrite there are several reasons as a sentence with a human or institutional subject

Claim that There are is a delay unless you are asserting existence itself.

Beginner · How-to — Sources: your paragraph, a style handbook

Cut in order to to to when no contrast is at stake

Show that the extra words rarely add meaning in a methods or aims sentence.

Beginner · How-to — Sources: your aims sentence, a usage note

Collapse a which-clause that only restates the noun

Argue that the committee, which is responsible for oversight, oversees is a loop.

Intermediate · How-to — Sources: your sentence, a relative-clause exercise

Remove a throat-clearing in terms of

Claim that In terms of cost, it is high wants to be The cost is high.

Beginner · How-to — Sources: your draft, a plain-language guide

Turn the fact that into a clause or a noun you can possess

Show that The fact that delays fell is weaker than Delays fell.

Intermediate · How-to — Sources: your sentence, a grammar handbook

Cut double hedges that cancel into mush

Argue that it could perhaps possibly be suggested that has no stance left.

Intermediate · Analytical — Sources: your discussion sentence, a hedging handout

Rewrite a 50-word sentence as two without losing the logical link

Claim that one precise connector between two short sentences beats a stacked which/and/although chain.

Advanced · How-to — Sources: your long sentence, a readability pass

Nominalizations and buried verbs

Putting the action back in the verb.

Turn made a decision into decided

Argue that the extra noun usually adds no legal or technical meaning.

Beginner · How-to — Sources: your sentence, a buried-verb list

Recover the actor hiding in a nominalization

Show that implementation of the policy occurred hides who implemented it.

Intermediate · Analytical — Sources: a policy memo, your rewrite

Keep a technical noun when it is the term of art, not padding

Claim that regression is not a buried verb in a methods sentence, whereas utilization probably is.

Intermediate · Compare-Contrast — Sources: a methods paragraph, a jargon list

Rewrite the conducting of an analysis as we analyzed

Argue that -ing nouns after the often want to be verbs.

Beginner · How-to — Sources: your draft, a style exercise

Unpack a stack of of-phrases

Show that the evaluation of the effectiveness of the program is three nouns away from a verb.

Intermediate · How-to — Sources: your sentence, a concision drill

Turn has an effect on into a specific verb (raises, delays, blunts)

Claim that effect on is a vague nominalization until you name the direction.

Beginner · Analytical — Sources: your results sentence, the table

Keep a nominalization if it is the topic you must carry old-to-new

Argue that This delay (already named) can stay a noun so the next sentence can comment on it.

Advanced · How-to — Sources: two linked sentences, a cohesion note

Rewrite assessment was undertaken of into we assessed

Show that empty verbs (undertaken, carried out, performed) almost always bury the real action.

Intermediate · How-to — Sources: a report draft, a plain-language guide

Hedging, boosters, and modality

Matching certainty to evidence without waffle or hype.

Replace proves with a verb your design can support

Argue that a cross-section may show an association; it does not prove a cause.

Intermediate · Analytical — Sources: your results sentence, a methods paragraph

Cut clearly, obviously, and undoubtedly unless the point is uncontested

Claim that boosters often mark the sentence you have not evidenced yet.

Beginner · How-to — Sources: your draft, a stance-marker list

Choose may, might, or can with a reason in the same sentence

Show that a modal without a because clause is a shrug, not a hedge.

Intermediate · How-to — Sources: your discussion, a hedging handout

Rewrite it is believed that as a named source or as you

Argue that dummy-subject belief hides whether you or a citation holds the view.

Beginner · How-to — Sources: your sentence, the cited paper

Tone down a recommendation that overreaches the data

Claim that should consider a pilot is a better rewrite than must transform the sector.

Intermediate · Argumentative — Sources: your recommendations, the findings

Add a scope hedge instead of a confidence hedge

Show that In this sample is often more honest than perhaps.

Advanced · How-to — Sources: your limitations, the claim sentence

Remove a fake-precision adverb (very unique, completely infinite)

Argue that the rewrite should delete the adverb, not replace it with another.

Beginner · How-to — Sources: your sentence, a usage note

Calibrate a literature-review verb (suggests vs demonstrates vs speculates)

Claim the reporting verb is a hedge and should match the source’s design.

Advanced · Analytical — Sources: the source’s methods, your citation sentence

Parallelism, lists, and comparison

Keeping like items in like grammatical shape.

Fix a list that mixes verbs and nouns

Argue that planning, to budget, and they implemented cannot share a colon.

Beginner · How-to — Sources: your sentence, a parallelism exercise

Rewrite a comparison so both sides are the same part of speech

Claim that more efficient than last year is incomplete until you name last year’s measure.

Intermediate · How-to — Sources: your sentence, the two numbers

Keep correlative pairs complete (not only / but also)

Show that not only the cost but the delay breaks the pair; not only the cost but also the delay does not.

Beginner · How-to — Sources: your sentence, a grammar handbook

Align bullet points in a report so each starts with the same verb form

Argue that mixed gerunds and imperatives look like unfinished editing.

Beginner · How-to — Sources: your slide or report list, a house style sheet

Rewrite a both-and sentence that is not actually both

Claim that both X and also Y plus a third item is a broken both.

Intermediate · Analytical — Sources: your sentence, a usage note

Make a ranked list’s grammar show the ranking

Show that first, second, and finally should attach to parallel clauses, not to mixed fragments.

Intermediate · How-to — Sources: your paragraph, the outline

Fix an apples-to-oranges comparison in one sentence

Argue that comparing a rate to a count is a rewrite problem, not only a stats problem.

Advanced · Analytical — Sources: the two figures, your sentence

Turn a runaway semicolon list into a table or into two sentences

Claim that a sentence cannot ethically carry six policy options as clauses.

Advanced · How-to — Sources: your long sentence, a report template

Ambiguous pronouns, modifiers, and reference

Making this, it, and dangling phrases point at one thing.

Replace a sentence-initial this with this plus a noun

Argue that This shows is a rewrite magnet until This delay shows.

Beginner · How-to — Sources: your draft, a clarity checklist

Fix a dangling modifier at the start of a methods sentence

Claim that Using a 5% cutoff, the sample was reduced does not say who used the cutoff.

Intermediate · How-to — Sources: your sentence, a modifier exercise

Disambiguate a they that could mean authors, participants, or firms

Show that repeating the noun is cheaper than a clever pronoun.

Beginner · How-to — Sources: your paragraph, the two possible referents

Move a only, just, or even next to the word it limits

Argue that We only interviewed teachers on Monday does not mean what you think.

Intermediate · Analytical — Sources: your sentence, a usage note

Rewrite a which that could attach to two nouns

Claim that the survey of clinics which closed last year is ambiguous until you recast it.

Intermediate · How-to — Sources: your sentence, a relative-clause drill

Pin a former/latter to two named items, or drop them

Show that with three items, latter is a trap.

Beginner · How-to — Sources: your sentence, a style handbook

Fix a squinting modifier that looks both ways

Argue that people who wrote quickly completed the form has two readings; split it.

Advanced · How-to — Sources: your sentence, a grammar exercise

Make a heading and the first sentence share a referent

Claim that a rewrite is needed if the heading says Costs and the sentence opens with They.

Intermediate · Case-Study — Sources: your heading, the first sentence

Tone: informal to academic without puffery

Raising register, cutting cliché, and keeping a human subject.

Rewrite a contraction and a slang verb without adding jargon

Argue that did not and fell are academic enough; utilization declined is optional.

Beginner · How-to — Sources: your draft, a register list

Replace a cliché (in this day and age, at the end of the day)

Claim the rewrite should be a date, a mechanism, or a deletion.

Beginner · How-to — Sources: your sentence, a cliché list

Turn a rhetorical question into a claim

Show that But what does this mean for policy? wants to be The finding matters for fee caps because…

Intermediate · How-to — Sources: your paragraph, a thesis checklist

Cut we as a species (we must all) unless you mean the research team

Argue that sermon we is a different pronoun from methods we.

Intermediate · Analytical — Sources: your conclusion, a stance guide

Rewrite a sentence that performs surprise (interesting, amazing) as a reason

Claim that The result is interesting is a placeholder for The result contradicts X.

Beginner · How-to — Sources: your discussion, the paper you contradict

Raise a text-message sentence into a memo sentence without going Latinate

Show that Need this by Friday can become Please send the draft by 17:00 Friday.

Beginner · How-to — Sources: the email, a professional-writing guide

Remove a throat-clearing as a society or since the dawn of time

Argue that the rewrite starts at the first sentence that names your case.

Intermediate · How-to — Sources: your introduction, the assignment question

Keep I in a reflective or methods sentence if house style allows it

Claim that converting I interviewed into interviews were conducted is not automatically more academic.

Advanced · Argumentative — Sources: house style sheet, your sentence

Pro Tips for Choosing Your Topic

• If you can delete a phrase and the sentence still means the same thing, delete it.
• Put the action in the verb unless the noun is a term of art or a cohesion link.
• Match may/proves/should to the design you actually used.
• Give this a noun; give they a name; attach modifiers to the word they limit.
• Academic tone is precision, not Latinate padding.

Related Resources

• 50 Active vs Passive Voice Topics for Academic Writing

• 50 Analytical Essay Topics for Academic Writing

• 50 Descriptive Essay Topics for Academic Writing

• 50 Harvard Referencing Topics for Academic Writing

• How to Rewrite Sentences in Academic Writing

• Find Peer-Reviewed Sources with Sourcely

• Polish Your Writing with Revise AI