Writers new to English begin by learning very simple sentence structures. These structures are used to express ideas in straightforward ways, but do not allow for much complexity. Because of this, they are often regarded as "low-level" English.

In school, native and non-native speakers of English are encouraged to use more "sophisticated" written English to reflect their growing proficiency in the language. Sophisticated language is especially important to use when trying to pass standardized tests of English. Using only "simple" sentence structures will result in a low score. This situation encourages the idea that more complicated grammar is evidence of more elevated thought. At universities around the world, students are taught to write with "powerful" words and "complex" grammatical structures.