When you’re leading a technical team or communicating complex ideas, clarity is essential, and one way to enhance your clarity is to use cleft sentences.
What Exactly Is a Cleft Sentence?
A cleft sentence is a structure that splits an idea into two parts to clearly emphasise the most important piece of information. Using ‘What…’ at the beginning puts your main point immediately in the spotlight.
General structure:
What + (subject + verb) + is/was + key information.
Examples:
- What we need is more resources.
- What I meant was we should rethink our strategy.
This technique naturally guides listeners or readers directly to your main point.
From Simple to Complex Usage:
Basic examples (General situations):
- What I’m suggesting is a new approach.
- What we decided was to wait until next quarter.
Tech examples:
- What crashed the server was an unexpected spike in requests.
- What users want from our app is quicker load times.
Complex Examples:
- What emerged from the security audit was the necessity of stronger encryption.
- What our data analysis revealed was significant user churn during onboarding.
Why Use Cleft Sentences in Tech?
Tech leaders often handle complicated information. By clearly highlighting your key message, you reduce misunderstandings and save valuable meeting time.
Consider these tech-focused examples:
Stand-ups & Retros:
- What I struggled with yesterday was database connectivity.
- What we accomplished in the sprint was significantly improving system reliability.
Technical Documentation:
- What differentiates our API is its streamlined authentication process.
Technical Support:
- What seems to be happening is memory leakage from the recent update.
Using cleft sentences quickly aligns everyone’s attention and makes problem-solving more effective.
General Workplace Communication:
Cleft sentences help you communicate clearly across all business contexts:
- Meetings: “What matters right now is keeping costs down.”
- Emails: “What I’d appreciate is your feedback by EOD.”
- Presentations: “What we’re looking at here is a new market opportunity.”
Clearly expressed messages improve understanding and demonstrate leadership capability.
Common Mistakes & How to Avoid Them:
- Subject-Verb Agreement:
✘ What we require are better guidelines.
✔ What we require is better guidelines. - Clarity of Emphasis:
Clearly decide what’s essential. Avoid muddying the emphasis. - Keep it Concise:
Don’t overload your sentence. Keep it direct and focused.
A Confidence-Building Technique:
When presenting or discussing a complex topic, pause briefly. Think about your core message. Start your sentence with “What…” and finish with your key point. This simple practice builds your authority and clarity instantly.
Practice Exercise: Rewrite these sentences into clearer, emphatic cleft sentences:
- We need better documentation.
- The user interface confused our customers.
- Your feedback was helpful.
Example answers:
- What we need is better documentation.
- What confused our customers was the user interface.
- What was helpful was your feedback.