In English, our sentences usually operate using a similar pattern: subject, verb, then object. The nice part about this type of structure is that it lets your reader easily know who is doing the ...

The process of preparing for a trip abroad can be daunting. Between packing and planning, learning foreign words and phrases may get put on the back burner.

Good, lively prose. Good, lively prose judiciously uses a mix of sentence patterns, effortlessly adds detail to the basic statements to make them sound intelligent, spontaneous, and convincing ...

This article was originally published with the title “ Patternicity: Finding Meaningful Patterns in Meaningless Noise ” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 299 No. 6 (December 2008) doi:10. ...