A good sentence, like a good composition, builds toward its conclusion. The second most emphatic place in a sentence is the beginning. This is the natural spot to establish the connection, if there is one, between what you just said and what you are starting to say now:

Don’t wait too long to get around to something that could possibly hold the reader’s interest:

On August 18, 1920, the day when a resident of my nursing home whose name is Mary was born, it also happened that . . .

Women got the right to vote on August 18, 1920 — the very day when . . .

If your sentence contains a series, either make the series move forward chronologically (or backward chronologically, if there’s a reason for doing so) or build it conceptually from smaller to bigger, from less to more impressive:

On seemingly random occasions, for reasons they’ve never explained, the band turns up onstage in costumes — a cape, a Viking helmet, and even a rubber horse’s head, which Gordie soon yanks off and tosses into the crowd.

The most emphatic place in a sentence is the end — the sentence’s destination. So if you have something you especially want your readers to notice, try to put it at the end.

Do not end a sentence by trailing off into inessential detail:

. . . the Constitutional amendment that gave women the right to vote was ratified, making it the 19th Constitutional amendment.

. . . when the 19th Constitutional amendment was ratified.

If you succeed in starting your sentences strong and ending them stronger, sometimes you’ll find that you’ve piled a lot of obstacles in the reader’s way in the middle.

Bob, everybody’s favorite nursing-home resident, not just because he’s outgoing and friendly but also because he still practices, for us, the craft with which he earned his living for three-quarters of a century, was a professional magician.

Often, a problem like that results from trying to pack too many ideas into one sentence. The writer is trying to tell us both how Bob earned his living and why he is everybody’s favorite resident. However, presenting the two ideas together, at the level of detail the writer has provided, overburdens the sentence.

Bob, everybody’s favorite nursing-home resident, earned his living for three-quarters of a century as a professional magician. We love him not just because he’s outgoing and friendly but also because he still practices his craft for us.

Now the first sentence ends with the interesting fact that Bob has long been a magician. The second sentence begins with We love him, referring back to everybody’s favorite resident in the first sentence, and it ends with the information that Bob still practices magic.