Ever wondered how prepositional phrases could cause the demise of a personal statement or simply a confused reader? Perhaps your learning how to diagram sentences (many of my clients are experts at diagramming) will help you visually see how parts of a sentence fit together. I use Eugene Moutoux’s book, Drawing Sentences—A Guide To Diagramming.
A client regretted submitting a personal statement with the following sentence:
I will never forget when I saw someone die for the first time.
Instead of writing:
I will never forget the first time I saw someone die.
When I responded to the essay with my comments, I asked: How many times does a person die?
Sentence diagramming may seem old fashion, but the process certainly puts prepositional phrases in their proper places.